The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1917-06-21

RAR
IL the western division Of our
army was then called. When Aaron
Burr made his first dashing expedition
down TO New Orleans IN 1895 at Fort
Massac or somewhere above on the
river he met. as the devil would have
il. this gay. dashing, bright young fci
low at some dinner party, | think
Burr marked him. talked to him. walk
ed with him. took him a day or tWo'S
voyage in his hatboat and. in short,
fascinated him. For the next year
barrack life was very tame 10 poor
Nolan. He occasionally ayailcd OF the
permission the great man had given
him 10 write to him. The other boys
I'm the garrison sneered at him because
he sacrificed In this unrequited affec
tion for IA politician the time which
they devoted to m~onongahela, slcdge
and high-low jack. 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 a disguised %coagucror, II
was rumored that he had an army be
hind him and an empire before him.
1t was II great day-his arriyal-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
out in his skin 10 show him a cane
brake or n cottonwood tree. as he said
really 10 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 II man without a country
What Burr meant to do | know no
more than YOU. dear reader Ii is noue
OF our business just now. Only when
the grand catastrophe came some Of
the lesser fry in that distant MiS-i~
sippi valley to while away the mono
tony of the summer at Fort adams
got up for spectaeles a string OF court
martialS on the officers there. one
and another OF the colonies and majors
were tried. and. TO III out the list. little
Nolan, against whom. heaven knows
there WAS evidence euOugh-that he
was sick Of the service. bad been will
ing TO be false to il and would have
obeyed any order 10 march %anywhither
with any one who would follow him
had the order only been signed, by
command OF His Exc. \. Burr" The
courts dragged on. The big flies es-
caped-rightly for all | know. Nolan
was proved guilty enough as say, yet
you and / would never have heard of
him. reader, but that. when the presi-
dent Of the court asked him at the
close whether be wished 10 say any
thing 10 show that he had always been
faithful to the United States he cried
out IN Il fit Of frenzy:
d the United States. | wish !
may never hear of the United States
again.
! 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, 2"
'Orleans plot and all the rest. He
had beer educated on a plantation
where the finest company vas a Span
ish officer or a French merchant from
Orleans. His education, such as II
was. had been perfected in commercial
expeditions to Vera Cruz and | think
he told me his father once hired an
Englishman to be a private tutor for a
winter IN Tho n1ontation IIa had ctAont
half bis youth with an older brother
hunting horses In Texas. and. in a 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 a 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 to
the reader why he damned his country
and wished he might never hear her
name again.
he never did hear her name but
once again. From that moment. Sers
q. 1907. till the day he died. May II.
1853. he never heard her name again.
For that half century and more he was
q man without a country.
Old Morgan. as | said, was terribly
shocked. He called the court into his
private room and returned in fifteen
minutes with a face like a sheet. to
say:
prisoner. hear the sentence Of the
court. The court decides. subject t.
the approval Of the president. that you
never hear the name Of the United
States again"
Nolan laughed. But nobody elst
lauRhed.- Old Morgan was too solemn