The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-05-24
THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY
tBy Edward Everett, Hale)

beaches Of California, is the time u
read anew this prose epic Of Ameri
can patriotism"
As story 1t holds the interest; as ;
lesson in love Of country II has thrill
ed the American heart for half cen
tury There are now, thank God, bu
few Philip Nolans among us, men whc
"wish they may never hear Of th'
United States agnin!"
This famous story, which will ranl
forever first among Americas appeals
TO patriotism, should be read and re-
read for its own sake and for the in
spiration II brings.
PART /
Philip Nolan was as fine young
officer as there was in the Legion OF
the West" as the western division OF
our army was then called. When
Aaron Burr made his first dashing ex-
pedition down TO New Orleans in 1906
at TT. Massae or somewhere above on
the river he met, as the devil would
have It, this gay, dashing, bright
young fellow at some dinner party,
think. Burr marked him, talked TO
him, walked with him, took him a
day or two's voyage in his fatboat
and, in short, fascinated him. For the
next year barrack life was very tame
TO poor Nolan. He occasionally avail
ed 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 unre-
Quilted affection for a politician the
time which they devoted to mononga-
hela, sledge and hig-low-jack. Bour-
bon, euchre and power were still un-
known. But one day Nolan had his
revenge. This time Burr came down
the river not as an attorney seeking
n place for his office, but as dis
Guised conqueror 1t was rumored
that he had an army behind him and
IN empire before him. 1t was a great
day-his arrival--to poor Nolan. Burr
had not been at the fort an hour be-
fore he sent for him. That evening
ne asked Nolan TO take him out in his
skif TO show him canebrake or
cottonwood tree, as he said-really to
seduce him-and by the time the sail
was over Nolan was enlisted body ana
soul From that time, though he did
not know it, he lived as "a man with
out 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
Mississippi valley to while away the
monotony at Fort Adams got up for
spcctacles string Of court martials
on the officers there. One and another
of the coonels 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 willing to
be false TO it and would have obeyed
any order to march anywhither with
anyone who would follow him had the
order only been signed, "By command
of His Exc. A. Burr" The courts
dragged on. The big flies escaped
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 president
of the court asked him at the close
whether he wished to say anything to
show that he had always been faithful
70 the United States he cried out in
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" Orleans
plot" and all the rest He had been
educated on plantation where the
finest company was Spanish officer
or French merchant from Orleans.
His education, such as it was. had {
been perfected in commercial expedi-
tons TO Vera Cruz and think he told
me his father once hired an English. :
man 10 be a private tutor for winter
on the plantation. He had spent half ,
his youth with an older brother hunt /
ing horses in Texas, and, in word, to
him Omitted States" was scarcely q s
reality. Yet he had been fed by the '
"Uniied States" for all the years /
since he had been in the army. He i
had sworn on his faith as Christian c
10 be true to United States 1t was
united States" which gave him the c
uniform he wore and the sword by his O
side. do not excuse Moan. only /,
explain TO the reader why he damned
his country and wished he might !,