The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-05-07
Edward Everett Hale's
"Prose Epic of American
Patriotism" Reprinted
is EARNEST APPEAL
TO u. S. LOYALTY
It Furnishes a Lesson for
the Disloyal and the
Needless

here reproduced because of the lesson il
may teach Americans of the present day
1863 and published anonymously in 8
magazine of that day. The story is as
follows:
! suppose that very few casual readers
of the New York Herald of August IL
observed, in an obscure corner, among
the deaths" the announcement:
"NOLAN. Died, on board U. S. Cor
vette Levant, Lat. 2 degrees, | | minutes
S., Long. l3l degrees west, on the 18th
of May, Philip Nolan"
l happened to observe it, because /
was stranded at the old missionhouse
in Mackinac, waiting for Lake Supe-
rior steamer which did not choose to
come, and l was devouring, to the very
stubble, all the current literature | could
get hold OF. even down to the deaths and
marriages in the Herald" Ny memory
for names and people is good, and the
iNouti WIZ Stts as iS SotS Oli ludl L
reason enough to remember Philip Nolan.
There are hundreds of readers who would
have paused at that announcement, il
the officer of the Levant who reported
il had chosen to make it thus: "Ded,
May 18th, The Man without a Coun-
try" For it was as THE Man With
out Country" that poor Philip Nolan
had generally been known by the officers
who had him in charge during some 80
years, as, indeed by all the men who
had sailed under them. | dare say there
is many a man who has taken wine
with him once a fortnight, in three
years cruise, who never knew that his
name was Nolan or whether the poor
wretch had any name at all.
There can now be no possible harm in
telling this poor creatures story. Reason
enough there has been till now, ever
since Msdison's administration went out
in 1917, for very strict secrecy, the Sc
crecy of honor itself, among the gentle
men of the navy who have had Nolan in
successive charge. And certainly it
speaks well for the esprit dc corps of
the profession and the personal honor of
its members, that to the press this mans
story has been wholly unknown and, /
think, to the country at large also.
have reason to think, from some in
yestigations made in the naval archives
when | was attached to the bureau of
construction, that every official report
rela ting to him was burned when Ross
burned the public buildings at Washing
ton One OF the fuckers, or possibly one
Of the Watsons, had Nolan in charge at
the end OF the war; and when, on re-
turning from his cruise, he reported at
Washington to one of the Crowinshelds |
who WAS in the navy department when |
he came home-he found that the de- |
partment ignored the whole business. |
Whether they really knew nothing about |
it. or whether it was non mi ricordo, |
determined on as a piece of policy, | do |
not know. But this | do know, that !
since 1917, and possibly before, no naval |
officer has mentioned Nolan in his report |
OF cruise.
As ! say there. is no need for secrecy /
any longer. And now the poor creature I
is dead, it seems to me worth while to
tell q little of his story by way of show
ing young Americans of to-day what it |
is to be
A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY.
Philip Nolan was as fine a young off.
GER 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 expedition down
10 New Orleans in 1905. at Fort Massae,
,r somewhere above on the river he met,
rs the devil would have it, this gay, Il
iashng. bright young fellow, at some
Inner party, | think. Burr marked him,
alked TO him, walked with him, took him
day or two's voyage in his flatboat,
md. in short, fascinated him. For the
lext year barrack life was very tame to
,oor Nolan. He occasionally awaited of
he permission the great man had given
i'm to write to him. Long, high worded, l
tilted letters the poor boy wrote and
ewrotc and copied. But never line
i'd he have in reply from the gay deceiv- a
II. The other boys in the garrison
neered at him. because he sacrificed in I
his unrequitted affection for politician {
he timew hieh they devoted to Monon- S
shela, sledge, and high low jack. Bour-
on, euehre, and poker were still I'M v
nown. But one day Nolan had his re-
enge. This time Burr came down the @
liver. not as an attorney seeking place |
OF his office, but as disguised conquer
r. He had defeated / know not how v
iany district attorneys; he had dined at p
know not how many public dinners;
2 had been heralded in / know not how L
ANY Weekly Arguses; and it was ru- p
lored that he had an army behind him h
nd an empire before him. II was q
reat day-his arrival-to poor Nolan
urr had not been at the fort an hour a
nfore he sent for him. That evening he :,
.ked Nolan to take him out in his skiff. b
show him a cane brake or a cotton n
God tree, as he said, really to seduce N
m; and by the time the sail was over,
olan was enlisted body and soul. From t.
lat time. though he did not yet know Il
, he lived as "A Man without a Coun- e,
y" v,
What Burr meant TO do / know no v,
ore than you, dear reader. II is none ed
our business just now. Only, when in
e grand catastrophe came, and Jeffer-
n and the House of Virginia Of that n
" undertook to break on the wheel all W
e possible Clarences of the then House OF
York, by the great treason trial at W
some of the lesser fry in
at distant Mississippi. valley. which
IS farther from us than Puget sound
to-day, introduced the like novelty on
cir provincial stage. and, 70 while away IN
2 monOtony Of the summer st Fort n
iams. got IN. for suertacles a string 81