He never did hear her name but once again. From that moment, September
23, 1807, till the day he died, May 11, 1863, he never heard the name
again. For that half century and more he was a man without a country.
Old Morgan, as I 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 returned in fifteen
minutes, with a 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
swagger in a moment. Then Morgan added,—
“Mr. Marshal, take the prisoner 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.
“Mr. Marshal,” continued old Morgan, “see that no one mentions the United
States to the prisoner. Mr. Marshal, make my respects to Lieutenant
Mitchell at Orleans, and request him to order that no one shall mention
the United States to the prisoner while he is on board ship. You will
receive your written orders from the officer on duty here this evening.
The court is adjourned without day.”
I have always supposed that Colonel Morgan himself took the proceedings
of the court to Washington City, and explained them to Mr. Jefferson.
Certain it is that the President approved them—certain, that is, if I
may believe the men who say they have seen his signature. Before the
_Nautilus_ got round from New Orleans to the Northern Atlantic coast with
the prisoner on board the sentence had been approved, and he was a man
without a country.
The plan then adopted was substantially the same which was necessarily
followed ever after. Perhaps it was suggested by the necessity of sending
him by water from Fort Adams and Orleans. The Secretary of the Navy—it
must have been the first Crowninshield, though he is a man I do not
remember—was requested to put Nolan on board a government vessel bound on
a long cruise, and to direct that he should be only so far confined there
as to make it certain that he never saw or heard of the country. We had
few long cruises then, and the navy was very much out of favor; and as
almost all of this story is traditional, as I have explained, I do not
know certainly what his first cruise was. But the commander to whom he
was intrusted—perhaps it was Tingey or Shaw, though I think it was one of
the younger men—we are all old enough now—regulated the etiquette and the
precautions of the affair, and according to his scheme they were carried
out, I suppose, till Nolan died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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