The National tribune., 1904-01-28

Vallandigham. The general reader of
to-day would not know his name, but that
in some address he said that he did not
want to live in country which did some
thing or other which the National Admin
istration, under Lincoln, had done. Gen.
Ambrose Everett Burnside was then in
command Of the Military Department in
which Mr.. Vallandigham lived. With a
certain delicate wit and readiness which
were characteristic OF the man, Burnside
marked his sense Of the reasonable speech
by sending Mr.. Valiandigham with his
compliments to the rebel General OH the
other side Of the Ohio, and saying that we
wanted no such people, and that the rebel
States were welcome to him.
The letter and the present which went
with it Of course engaged public attention
in the region where the transfer was made
The copperhead faction in Ohio boldly
and with good political shrewdness, as it
seems to ME, accepted the issue, and
named Mr.. Vallandigham-wh0 was a
martyr on their theory-as their candidate
for Governor in the next election. He
was exactly the fit candidate OH the issue
then before the people"
DR.. Hale then remarked that he had
long before that time conceived the idea
OF writing story with the title, ''The
Man Without Country" title that had
possibilities and probable situations that
appealed to him. Some of these situations
had suggested themselves to him on read
ing SCOTS Napoleon, in his boyhood, and
the Vallandigham episode gave him the
keynote for his story. He was at that
time-in 1S63-writing political articles
for the Atlantic Monthly, so he rushed .his
stery-"The Man Without q Country
through and sent it to the Atlantic Month
" to be printed in the October number
issued of course in August, as his contri-
button to the Ohio canvass. the State cleo
ton there taking place in October
The editor, Mr.. Field, did not do as
he promised, however, and the story did
not appear till i'm December of 1863. when
MIR. Nallandigham had been beaten six
weeks by a majority of over 100000.
1t really is very funny to hear DIR. Hale
tell about how he ''read up" for his story.
1.-THE Man Without Country" so that
he might not use names ever heard of i'm
Army or Naval history, or by any chance
send the ship ON which the as yet unnamed
Nero of the story was to be placed, into
any port where she had ever been.
Il read the reports Of the Navy Depart
ment from 1885," he says, "down to 1861.
This was to be sure Of my local color, and
that might never, by any accident, place
vessel in the place where she really was
or name an officer so that a real man could
be annoyed" Then he studied up Aaron
Burr's two voyages down the Mississippi,
and the political events of those days,
reading about Mr.. Jefferson, and also Gen.
Wilkinson's Memoirs, which he calls ga
very stupid galimatias of facts and lies,'
and all about Burr's trial at Richmond.
Then he wrote his story. 1.-THE plan
is simple" he says, "and I wrote it with
my own hand, as | wrote then, almost
without break
OF the hero, DR.. Hale says, "My hero
is purely imaginary character. The crit
les are right in saying that not only there
could have been such q man. But he had
to have name, and the choice of name,
in q novel is a matter OF essential imper-
lance, as it proved to be here. Well,
remembered that in those preposterous
Memoirs of Wilkinsen's, whenever he had
worse Serape than usual to explain he
would say that the papers were lost when
Mr.. Nolan was imprisoned or was killed
in Texas. This Mr.. Nolan, as Wilkinson
generally calls him. had been engaged
with Wilkinson in some speculations
mostly relating to horses and almost al
ways disrepHtable. Remembering this I
toolc the name Nolan Tor my hero.n
He made his hero the brother Of the
real Nolan whose name, as he thought, |
was Stephen. So to avoid complications
there he named the hero Phillip Nelan,n
and says it was not till a year Ia ter that he
was looking over the Wilkinson, Memoirs
when he found to his dismay.s that the
Texas Nolan was named Phillip. and he
had finally selected q name well known in
history at that time.
DIR. Haia's experiences with people.
army officers, naval 0fieers. aueWsDaper
men. business men, all 6f whom had |
known Philip NOihny tbs hero Of The |