The National tribune., 1883-03-15

nave always supposed that Colonel Morgan
himself took the proceedings of the court to
| Washington City. and explained them to Mr..
Jefferson. Certain it is that the President APP
| proved them-certain, that is if | may believe
the men who say they have seen his signature.
/ Before the Nautilus got round from New Or
leans to the Northern Atlantic coast with the
/ prisoner on board, the sentence had been ap-
/ proved. and he was a man without a country.
The plan then adopted was substantially the
same which was necessarily followed ever after.
Perhaps it was suggested by the necessity of
sending him by water from Fort Adams and
/ Orleans. The Secretary of the Navy-it must
( have been the first Crowninshicld, though he
/ is a man ! do not rcmcmber-was requested to
! put Nolan on board a Government vessel bound
/ on a long cruise, and to direct that he should
/ he only SO far confined there as to make it GER
! tain that he never saw or heard of the country.
! We had few long cruises then, and the navy
| was very much out Of favor; and as almost all
of this story is traditional, rs l have explained,
; do not know certainly what his first cruise
WIS But the commander to whom he was in
truSted-perhaps il WAS Tingey or Shaw, though
/ think it was one of the younger .men-we are
all old enough nOw-rcgulated the etiquette
and the precautions of the affair, and according
to his scheme they were carried out suppose,
till Nolan died.
When l was second officer of the Intrepid,
some thirty years after, saw the original pa
E
since that / did not copy the whole Of it. 1t
ran, however, much in this way:
"Hashiagtoa," with the date, which
must have been late in 1907
"SIR: You will receive from 1t. NeaIe the
person of Philip Nolan, late a Lieutenant in
the United States Army.
This person on his trial by court-martial
expressed with an oath the wish that he might
never hear of the United States again
The Court sentenced him to have his wish
fulfilled.
"For the present, the execution of the or
der is intrusted by the President to this depart
mcnt.
You will take the prisoner on board your
ship, and keep him there with such precautions
as shall prevent his escape
- You will provide him with such quarters,
rations and clothing as would be proper for an
officer of his late rank, If he were a passenger
on your vessel on the business of his Govern
ment.
The gentlemen on board will make any ar
rangelnents agreeable to themselves regarding
his society He is to be exposed to no indig-
nifty of any kind, nor is he ever unnecessarily
to be reminded that he is a prisoner.
But under no circumstances is he ever to
hear of his country or to see any information
regarding it; and you will specially caution all
the officers under your command to take care,
that, in the various indulgencieS which may
be granted, this rule, in which his punishment
is involved, shall not be- broken.
"It is the intention Of the Government that
he shall never again see the country which he
has disOwmcd. Before the end of your cruise
you viii receive orders which will give effect
to this intention. Resp,y yours,
"W. SOUTHARD, for the
Sec'y of the Navy"
IF had only preserved the whole of this
paper, there would be no break in the begin
ming of my sketch of this story. For Captain
Shaw if it was he, handed it to his successor in
the charge, and he to his, and / suppose the
commander of the Levant has it to-day as his
authority for keeping this man in his mild
custody.
The rule adopted on board the ships on which
/ have met "the man without country" was,
| think, transmitted from the beginning No
mess liked to have him permanently, because
his presence cut off all talk of home or of the
prospect Of return, of politics letters, of
peace or of war,-cut off more than half the
talk men like to have at sea- But it was al
ways thought too hard that he should never meet
the rest of US except to touch hats and we
finally sank into one system. He was not per-
mitted to talk with the men, unless an officer
was by. With officers he had unrestrained in
teTcourse, as far as they and he chose. But he
grew shy, though he had favoTiteS: | was one
Then the captain always asked him to dinner
/
the invitation in its turn. According to the
size of the ship, you had him at your mess
more or less often at dinner. His break fast
he ate in his own state-rO0m,-he always had
a state-roOm, which was where a senti-
mel, or somebody on the watch, could see
the door, And whatever else he ate or
drank he ate or drank alone Sometimes, when
the marines or sailors had any special jOllifca-
ton, they were permitted to invite q Plain
Buttons" as they called him. Then Nolan
was sent with some officer and the men were
forbidden to speak of home while he was there
l believe the theory was, that the sight of his
punishment did them good. They called him
Plain Buttons" because, while he always
chose to wear regulation auny-unitOrm, he
was not permitted TO wear the arnly-buttOn,
for the reason that it bore either the initials
or the insignia Of the country he had dis
owned.
IreInember, soon after ! joined the navy, I was
on shore with some Of the older officers from
our ship and from the Brandywine, which we
had met at Alexandria. We had leave TO make
party and go up to Cairo and the Pyramids.
As We logged along, (yOu went on dOnkeys
then,) some Of the gentlemen 1--WE boys called
them "Dons," but the phrase was long since
changed) fell TO talking about Nolan, and some
! one told the system which was adopted from
| the first about his books and other reading. As
/ he was almost never permitted to 20 on shore,
/ even though the vessel lay in port for months,
/ his time, at the best, hung heavy; and every
! body was permitted TO lend him books, if they
/ were not published i'll America and made no
! alIuson 10 it, These were common enough in
! the old days, when people in the other hemis-
! pherc talked Ofthc United States as little as we
/ do Of Paraguay He had almost all the foreign
papers that came into the Ship sooner or later :;
! only somebody must go over them first and
/ cut out any advertisement or stray paragraph
! that alluded to America. This was little
cruel sometimes, when the back Of what was
cut out might be as innocent as HeSiod. Right
/ in the midst Of one Of Napoleens battles, or one
! Of Canning's speeches, poor Nolan would find q
/ great hole, because on the back of the page of
/ that paper there had been an advertisement Ofa
! packet for New York, or a scrap from the PrCsi-
/ ever heard of this plan, which afterwards | had
! enough, and more than enough. to do with. |
remember it, because poor Phillips who was of
/ the party, as soon as the allusion to reading
was made, told a story OF something which
I happened at the Cape of Good Hope on Nolan's
first voyage; and it is the only thing l ever
/ knew of that voyage. They had touched at
/ the Cape, and had done the civil thing with
/ the English admiral and the feet, and then,
/ leaving for a cruise up the Indian Ocean, Phil
! lips had borrowed lot Of English books from
an officer, which, in those days, as indeed in
/ these was quite a wndfall. Among them, as
/ the Devil would order, was the LAY Of the
. Last Minstrel which they mad all of them
/ heard Of but which most Of them had never
seen. l think it could not have been published
VII l.aglrv ha