The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1891-02-12
The Man without a Country.

The Man without a Country.
In 1907. the adroit and dashing Aaron
Burr made his second expedition down the
Mississippi to New Orleans At one of our
posts on the river, perhaps Fort Adams, he
met Philip Nolan, as gay and bright
young artillery officer as the Legion of the
West could boast. Burr took a fancy to
the young man, and was soon on intimate
terms with him. and had him enlisted body
and soul in his chimerical project of con-
quest in the Southwest. But Burr's efforts
in that direction were thwarted by his be-
ing called to Richmond to defend himself
against charge of treason.
At the same time several army officers in
the West were court martialed on charge of
being dissatisfied with the service and I'M
faithful to the United States. Among the
number was Nolan. Yet the world would
never have heard of him. but for his char
acterlstic answer to the judge of the court,
when the latter asked him at the close
whether he had anything to say to show his
faithfulnesS to the United States. He cried
in a frenzied distemper:
oh the United States! l wish 1
may never hear of the United States againw
The words had an astonishing effect on
the court. and in fifteen minutes they
brought in the following verdict: 1.-The
court decides. subject the approval of the
President, that you never hear the name of
the United States again."
The prisoner was Immediately ordered to
be taken to New Orleans and delivered to
naval commander there. with orders to take
him to the Northern Atlantic Before the
vessel anchored off the Virginia coast, Pres.
Jefferson had approved the sentence, and
Philip Nolan was 1.-THE man without a
country" He never did hear the name of
the United States but once again.
For more than fifty years he was kept
prisoner on government vessels bound on
long cruises. Captains and all on board
were under the strictest orders to give him
no information concerning the United
States, much less to mention her name.
He was ignorant of half century of our
history. The war of 1912 he had guessed,
for during one of the naval fights of that
war. when the enemy's round shot had
mOwn down one of our gun officers, Nolan
sprang to his place, seized the hammer. and
ordered the men as if he were an officer
himself. There he stayed, captain of the
gun. till the enemy struck her colors.
After the affair was over, the American
commodore gave his own sword to Nolan,
who, according to Mr.. Hale, ''cried like a
baby" when he received it. On another &C.
casiOn. just before the war with England,
a company of officers were reading on deck,
and Nolan was permitted to join them. It
happened that. in his turn, he had to read
the fifth and sixth cantOes of Lay of the
Last Minstrel" and without knowing what
was coming, came upon the famous lines:
"Breathes there a man with soul 40 dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land
Whose heart hath meier within him burned,
AS home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?
IT such there be 60 mark him well.''
He almost entirely broke down, but stag
gered on and wished himself through.
.'For him minstrel raptures swell
High through his titles, proud his name,
BOundless his wealth wish can claim,
Despite these titles, power. and pelf.
The wretch, cOncentered all in self"
Here he almost chOked but rose and
threw the book into the sea and disappeared
into his state room.
Hitherto Nolan had affected to enjoy his
novel prison life; but the foregoing incident
seems to have caused a remarkable change.
He took to reading assiduOusly and studied
Natural History as diversion. Sometimes
he yearped for his native land and enQuired
about Texas and Louisiana; but his ques-
tons of that nature remaaned unanswered.
He even asked pardon Or at least to have
the severity of his sentenSo mitigated but
the affair was neglected at Washington,
probably because the original papers had
been destroyed when Gen. Ross burnt the |
capitol and other public buildings.
Nolan lived to good old age; he was
never known to be i'll. But in 1868. when |
the country was in the throes of the rebell- |