The Madisonian. (Richmond, Ky.) 1913-1914, 1914-07-21

~ 1HILIP NOLAN was as fine
III young officer as there was in
Ill the Legion Of the West" as
- the western division of our
army was then called. When Aaron
Burr made his first dashing expedition
down to New Orleans in 1905 at Fort
Massac or somewhere above on the
river he met. as the devil would have
it, this gay, dashing. bright young fell
low at some dinner party, l think.
Burr marked him, talked to him, walk
ed with him, took him day or two's
voyage in his f1atboat and, in short,
fascinated him. For the next year
barrack life was very tame to poor
Nolan. He occasionally availed of the
permission the great man had given
him to write to him. The other boys
in the garrison sneered at him because
he sacrificed in this unrequited affec-
ton for a politician the time which
they devoted to monongahela, sledge
and high-low-jac Bourbon, euchre
and poker were still unknown. But
one day Nolan had his revenge. This
time Burr came down the river not as
an attorney seeking a place for his Of
fee, but as disguised conqueror. 1t
was rumored that he had an army be-
hind him and an empire before him.
1t was great day-his arrival-to poor
Nolan. Burr had not been at the fort
an hour before he sent for him. That
evening he asked Nolan to take him
IN, ,I-Sf 10 oh h
brake or cottonwood tree, as he said
really to seduce him-and by the time
the sail was over Nolan was enlisted
body and soul. From that time,
though he did not yet know it, he lived
as "a man without country"
What Burr meant to do know no
more than you. dear reader. 1t is none
of our business just now. Only when
the grand catastrophe came some of
the lesser fry in that distant Missis-
sippi valley to while away the mono
tony of the summer at Fort Adams
got up for spectacles string of court
martials on the officers there. One
and another of the colonies and majors
were tried, and, to fill out the list, little
Nolan, against whom, heaven knows,
there was evidence enough-that he
was sick of the service, had been will
ing to be false to it and would have
obeyed any order to march anywhither
with any one WHO would follow him
had the order only been signed, "By
command of His Exc. A. Burr" The
courts dragged on. The big flies es-
caped-rightly for all know. Nolan
was proved guilty enough as say, yet
you and I would never have heard of
him, reader, but that, when the presf-
dent of the court asked him at the
close whether he wished to say any
thing to show that he bad always been
faithful to the United States he cried
out in fit of frenzy:
ID the United StatesI 1 wish 1
may never hear of the United States
again.
I suppose he did not know how the
words shocked old Colonel Morgan.
who was holding the court Nolan
had grown up in the west of those
days in the midst of Spanish plot, .
"Orleans plot and all the rest He
had been educated on a plantation
where the finest company was a Span
ish officer or a French merchant from
Orleans His education, such as il
was, had been perfected in commercial
expeditions to Vera Cruz and I think
he told me his father once hired an
Englishman to be private tutor for q
winter on the plantation. He had spent
half his youth with an older brother
hunting horses in Texas, and. in word
to him United States" was scarce
ly a reality. Yet he had been fed by
Omitted States" for all the years since
he had been in the army. He had
sworn on his faith as Christian to be
true to United States" 1t was 'Unit
ed States which gave him the uniform
he wore and the sword by his side.
do not excuse Nolan. only explain t.
the reader why he damned his country
and wished he might never hear hel
name again.
He never did hear her name bu
once again. From that moment. Sept
%, 1907, till the day he died, May IL
1863, he never heard her name again
For that half century and more he wal
a man without country.
Old Morgan, as Iesaid, was terribl.
shocked. He called the court into hi
private room and returned in fifteel
minutes with a face like sheet. t
say:
ssPrisonar hea, tho sentence of th
court The court decides, subject
the approval of the president, that 20
never hear the name of the Unite
States again
Nolan laughed But nobody els
laughed. Old Morgan was too solemn
and the whole room was hushed dea
as night for a minute. Even Nolan los
his swagger in moment. Then Mol
gan added: "Mr. Marshal, take tn
prisoner to Orleans in an armed boa
and deliver him to the naval CON
mander there.
The marshal gave his orders, an
the prisoner was taken out Of court.
'Mr Marshal" continued old Mol
{ gan. "see that no one mentions tn
United States to the prisoner HI
Marshal, make my respects to Lick
tenant Mitchell at Orleans and reques
him to- order that no one shall mer
ton the United States to the prisone
while he Is on board ship. You VII
receive your written orders from th
officer on duty here this evening. tn