The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-05-07

uttle Nolan against Whom, heaVel
knows, there was evidence enough tina
he was sick of the service, had been will
ing to be false to it, and would hav
obeyed any order to march anywhithe
with anyone who would follow him, ha'
the order only been signed, by com
mand of His Exc. A. Burr" The courts
dragged on. The big files escaped, right
ly for all / know. Nolan was proved
guilty enough, as | say; yet you and
would never have heard of him, reader
but that, when the president of the court
asked him at the close, whether he wished
to say anything to show that he hac
always been faithful to the Unltec
States, he cried out, in fiat OF frenzy
Oh the United States! ] wish
may never hear of the United States
again!"
suppose he did not know how the
wordss hooked old Colonel Morgan, who
was holding the court. Half the officers
who sat in it had served through the
Revolution, and their lives, not to say
their necks, had been risked for the very
idea which he so cavalierly cursed in his
madness. He, on his part, had grown up
in the West of those days, in the midst
of Spanish plot, ""Orleans plot" and all
the rest. His education, such as it was,
had been perfected in commercial expedi-
tions to Vera Cruz, and / think he told
| me his father once hired an Engishnan
to be private tutor for 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 scarcely 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 Omitted States
let was united States" which gave him
the uniform he wore, and the sword by
his side. Nay, my poor Nolan, 1T was
only because United States" had picked
you out first as one of her own conf
Dental men of honor, that "a. Burr"
cared for you a straw more than for the
flatboat men who sailed his ark for him.
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, September
%, 1907, till the day he died. May ii,
1868, he never heard her name again.
For that half century and more he was
ma nwithout a country.
Old Morgan, as | said, was terribly
shocked. If Nolan had compared George
Washington to Benedict Arnold, or had
cried, 'God save King George" Morgan
would not have felt worse. He called
the court into his private room, and re-
turned in Is minutes, with face like a
sheet, to say:
prisoner, hear the sentence of the
court. The court decides, subject to the
approval of the president. that you never
hear the name of the United States
again"
Nolan laughed But nobody else
laughed. Old Morgan was too solemn,
and the whole room was hushed dead
as night for a minute. Even Nolan lost
his swsgger in moment. Then Nor
gan added "Mr Marshal take the pris
oner to Orleans in an armed boat, and |
deliver him TO the naval commander |
there
The marshal gave his orders, and the |
prisoner was taken out of court
aNt l.
see that no one mentions the United |
States to the prisoner. MIR. Marshal |
make my respects to Lieutenant Mitchell |
At Orleans, and request him to order that
no one shall mention the United States /
10 the prisoner while he is on board ship. |
You viii receive your written orders
rom the officer on duty here this even
ng. The court is adjourned without
lay"
| have always supposed that Colonel
Morgan himself took the proceedings OF
he court to Washiegton City, and ex
blamed them to Mr.. Jefferson Certain
t is that the president approved them,
ertain, that is, If may believe the men
Who say they have seen his signature.
The plan then adopted was substan-
tally the same which was necessarily
olowed ever after. Perhaps it was sug-
,ested by the necessity of sending him
" water from Fort Adams and Orleans.
The secretary of the navy was requested
o put Nolan on board a government YES {
el bound on a long cruise, and to direct
hat he should be only SO far confined
here as to make ii certain that he never (
sw or heard of the country. We had 4
ew long cruises then, and the navy was
cry much out of favor; and as almost !
II of this story is traditional. as | have |
Explained, do not know certainly what {
is first cruise was. But the comman-
er to whom he was ntrusted-perhaps
, was Tingey or Shaw, though | think
was one of the younger men--we are
II old enough now-regulsted the ETH
uette and the precautions of the affair,
nd according to his scheme they were b
lrried out, | suppose, till Nolan died.
When | was second officer of the In
repid some 80 years later, | saw the |,
riginal paper of instructions. 1 have
cen sorry ever since that did not copy
ne whole of it. 1t ran, however, much
this way:
Washington" with the date, which p
ust have been late in 1907. 81
"Sir-You will receive from Lieutenant O
eale the person of Philip Nolan, late
lieutenant in the United States army. v
"This person on his trial by court
atrial expressed with an oath the wish A
lat he might never hear of the United F
.ates again. Ii
"The court sentenced him to have his
ish fulfilled.
"For the present, the execution of the n
der is intrusted by the president Of tC
is department. lhi
"You will take the prisoner on board h,
,ur ship, and keep him there with such st
ecsutions as shall prevent his escape.
49, i