The Man Without a Country | Page 3

it was the
death of Nolan, the real Philip Nolan, killed by one Spanish governor
while he held the safe-conduct of another, which roused that wave of
indignation in the Southwest which ended in the independence of Texas.
I think the State of Texas would do well, to-day, if it placed the statue
of the real Phil Nolan in the Capitol at Washington by the side of that
of Sam Houston.
In the midst of the war the story was published in the "Atlantic
Monthly," of December, 1863. In the Southwest the "Atlantic" at once
found its way into regions where the real Phil Nolan was known. A
writer in the "New Orleans Picayune," in a careful historical paper,
explained at length that I had been mistaken all the way through, that
Philip Nolan never went to sea, but to Texas. I received a letter from a
lady in Baltimore who told me that two widowed sisters of his lived in
that neighborhood. Unfortunately for me, this letter, written in perfectly
good faith, was signed E. F. M. Fachtz. I was receiving many letters on
the subject daily. I supposed that my correspondent was concealing her
name, and was really "Eager for More Facts." When in reality I had the
pleasure of meeting her a year or two afterwards, the two widowed
sisters of the real Phil Nolan were both dead.
But in 1876 I was fortunate enough, on the kind invitation of Mr. Miner,
to visit his family in their beautiful plantation at Terre Bonne. There I
saw an old negro who was a boy when Master Phil Nolan left the old
plantation on the Mississippi River for the last time. Master Phil Nolan
had then married Miss Fanny Lintot, who was, I think, the aunt of my
host. He permitted me to copy the miniature of the young adventurer.
I have since done my best to repair the error by which I gave Philip
Nolan's name to another person, by telling the story of his fate in a
book called "Philip Nolan's Friends." For the purpose of that book, I
studied the history of Miranda's attempt against Spain, and of John
Adams's preparations for a descent of the Mississippi River. The
professional historians of the United States are very reticent in their
treatment of these themes. At the time when John Adams had a little
army at Cincinnati, ready to go down and take New Orleans, there were

no Western correspondents to the Eastern Press.
Within a year after the publication of the "Man without a Country" in
the "Atlantic" more than half a million copies of the story had been
printed in America and in England. I had curious accounts from the
army and navy, of the interest with which it was read by gentlemen on
duty. One of our officers in the State of Mississippi lent the "Atlantic"
to a lady in the Miner family. She ran into the parlor, crying out, "Here
is a man who knows all about uncle Phil Nolan." An Ohio officer, who
entered the city of Jackson, in Mississippi, with Grant, told me that he
went at once to the State House. Matters were in a good deal of
confusion there, and he picked up from the floor a paper containing the
examination of Philip Nolan, at Walnut Springs, the old name of
Vicksburg. This was before the real Philip's last expedition. The United
States authorities, in the execution of the neutrality laws, had called
him to account, and had made him show the evidence that he had the
permission of the Governor of New Orleans for his expedition.
In 1876 I visited Louisiana and Texas, to obtain material for "Philip
Nolan's Friends." I obtained there several autographs of the real Phil
Nolan,--and the original Spanish record of one of the trials of the
survivors of his party,--a trial which resulted in the cruel execution of
Ephraim Blackburn, seven years after he was arrested. That whole
transaction, wholly ignored by all historians of the United States known
to me, is a sad blot on the American administration of the Spanish
kings. Their excuse is the confusion of everything in Madrid between
1801 and 1807. The hatred of the Mexican authorities among our
frontiersmen of the Southwest is largely due to the dishonor and cruelty
of those transactions.
EDWARD E. HALE.
THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY
I [Note 1] suppose that very few casual readers of the "New York
Herald" of August 13, 1863, observed, [Note 2] in an obscure corner,
among the "Deaths," the announcement,--

"NOLAN. Died, on board U. S. Corvette 'Levant,' [Note 3] Lat. 2° 11'
S., Long. 131° W., on the 11th of May, PHILIP NOLAN."
I happened to observe it, because I was stranded at the old Mission
House