The Man Without a Country
Page 7
order of 1807? Should he keep him?What, then, if Nolan should be liberated some day, and should bring anaction for false imprisonment or kidnapping against every man who hadhad him in charge? I urged and pressed this upon Southard, and I havereason to think that other officers did the same thing. But theSecretary always said, as they so often do at Washington, that therewere no special orders to give, and that we must act on our ownjudgment. That means, "If you succeed, you will be sustained; if youfail, you will be disavowed." Well, as Danforth says, all that is overnow, though I do not know but I expose myself to a criminal prosecutionon the evidence of the very revelation I am making.
Here is the letter:--
LEVANT, 2? 2' S. @ 131? W.
"DEAR FRED:--I try to find heart and life to tell you that it is allover with dear old Nolan. I have been with him on this voyage more thanI ever was, and I can understand wholly now the way in which you usedto speak of the dear old fellow. I could see that he was not strong, butI had no idea the end was so near. The doctor has been watching him verycarefully, and yesterday morning came to me and told me that Nolan wasnot so well, and had not left his state-room,--a thing I never rememberbefore. He had let the doctor come and see him as he lay there,--thefirst time the doctor had been in the state-room,--and he said he shouldlike to see me. Oh, dear! do you remember the mysteries we boys used toinvent about his room in the old 'Intrepid' days? Well, I went in, andthere, to be sure, the poor fellow lay in his berth, smiling pleasantlyas he gave me his hand, but looking very frail. I could not help aglance round, which showed me what a little shrine he had made of thebox he was lying in. The stars and stripes were triced up above andaround a picture of Washington, and he had painted a majestic eagle,with lightnings blazing from his beak and his foot just clasping thewhole globe, which his wings overshadowed. The dear old boy saw myglance, and said, with a sad smile, 'Here, you see, I have a country!'And then he pointed to the foot of his bed, where I had not seen beforea great map of the United States, as he had drawn it from memory, andwhich he had there to look upon as he lay. Quaint, queer old names wereon it, in large letters: 'Indiana Territory,' 'Mississippi Territory,'and 'Louisiana Territory,' as I suppose our fathers learned such things:but the old fellow had patched in Texas, too; he had carried his westernboundary all the way to the Pacific, but on that shore he had definednothing.
"'O Captain,' he said, 'I know I am dying. I cannot get home. Surely youwill tell me something now?--Stop! stop! Do not speak till I say what Iam sure you know, that there is not in this ship, that there is not inAmerica,--God bless her!--a more loyal man than I. There cannot be a manwho loves the old flag as I do, or prays for it as I do, or hopes for itas I do. There are thirty-four stars in it now, Danforth. I thank Godfor that, though I do not know what their names are. There has neverbeen one taken away: I thank God for that. I know by that that there hasnever been any successful Burr, O Danforth, Danforth,' he sighed out,'how like a wretched night's dream a boy's idea of personal fame or ofseparate sovereignty seems, when one looks back on it after such a lifeas mine! But tell me,--tell me something,--tell me everything, Danforth,before I die!'
"Ingham, I swear to you that I felt like a monster that I had not toldhim everything before. Danger or no danger, delicacy or no delicacy, whowas I, that I should have been acting the tyrant all this time over thisdear, sainted old man, who had years ago expiated, in his wholemanhood's life, the madness of a boys treason? 'Mr. Nolan,' said I, 'Iwill tell you everything you ask about. Only, where shall I begin?'
"Oh, the blessed smile that crept over his white face! and he pressed myhand and said, 'God bless you! 'Tell me their names,' he said, and hepointed to the stars on the flag. 'The last I know is Ohio. My fatherlived in Kentucky. But I have guessed Michigan and Indiana andMississippi,--that was where Fort Adams is,--they make twenty. But whereare your other fourteen? You have not cut up any of the old ones, Ihope?'
"Well, that was not a bad text, and I told him the names in as goodorder as I could, and he bade me take down his beautiful map and drawthem in as I best could with my pencil. He was wild with delight aboutTexas, told me how his cousin died there; he had marked a gold crossnear where he supposed his grave was; and he had guessed at Texas. Thenhe was delighted as he saw California and Oregon;--that, he said, he hadsuspected partly, because he had never been permitted to land on thatshore, though the ships were there so much. 'And the men,' said he,laughing, 'brought off a good deal besides furs.' Then he went back--heavens, how far!--to ask about the Chesapeake, and what was done toBarron for surrendering her to the Leopard, [Note 11] and whether Burrever tried again,--and he ground his teeth with the only passion heshowed. But in a moment that was over, and he said, 'God forgive me, forI am sure I forgive him.' Then he asked about the old war,--told me thetrue story of his serving the gun the day we took the Java,--asked aboutdear old David Porter, as he called him. Then he settled down morequietly, and very happily, to hear me tell in an hour the history offifty years.
"How I wished it had been somebody who knew something! But I did as wellas I could. I told him of the English war. I told him about Fulton andthe steamboat beginning. I told him about old Scott, and Jackson; toldhim all I could think of about the Mississippi, and New Orleans, andTexas, and his own old Kentucky. And do you think, he asked who was incommand of the 'Legion of the West.' I told him it was a very gallantofficer named Grant and that, by our last news, he was about toestablish his head-quarters at Vicksburg. Then, 'Where was Vicksburg?' Iworked that out on the map; it was about a hundred miles, more or less,above his old Fort Adams; and I thought Fort Adams must be a ruin now.'It must be at old Vick's plantation, at Walnut Hills,' said he: 'well,that is a change!'
"I tell you, Ingham, it was a hard thing to condense the history of halfa century into that talk with a sick man. And I do not now know what Itold him,--of emigration, and the means of it,--of steamboats, andrailroads, and telegraphs,--of inventions, and books, and literature,--of the colleges, and West Point, and the Naval School,--but with thequeerest interruptions that ever you heard. You see it was RobinsonCrusoe asking all the accumulated questions of fifty-six years!
"I remember he asked, all of a sudden, who was President now; and when Itold him, he asked if Old Abe was General Benjamin Lincoln's son. Hesaid he met old General Lincoln, when he was quite a boy himself, atsome Indian treaty. I said no, that Old Abe was a Kentuckian likehimself, but I could not tell him of what family; he had worked up fromthe ranks. 'Good for him!' cried Nolan; 'I am glad of that. As I havebrooded and wondered, I have thought our danger was in keeping up thoseregular successions in the first families.' Then I got talking about myvisit to Washington. I told him of meeting the Oregon Congressman,Harding; I told him about the Smithsonian, and the Exploring Expedition;I told him about the Capitol, and the statues for the pediment, andCrawford's Liberty, and Greenough's Washington: Ingham, I told himeverything I could think of that would show the grandeur of his countryand its prosperity; but I could not make up my mouth to tell him a wordabout this infernal rebellion!
"And he drank it in and enjoyed it as I cannot tell you. He grew moreand more silent, yet I never thought he was tired or faint. I gave him aglass of water, but he just wet his lips, and told me not to go away.Then he asked me to bring the Presbyterian 'Book of Public Prayer' whichlay there, and said, with a smile, that it would open at the rightplace,--and so it did. There was his double red mark down the page; andI knelt down and read, and he repeated with me, 'For ourselves and ourcountry, O gracious God, we thank These, that, notwithstanding ourmanifold transgressions of Thy holy laws, Thou hast continued to us Thymarvellous kindness,'--and so to the end of that thanksgiving. Then heturned to the end of the same book, and I read the words more familiarto me: 'Most heartily we beseech Thee with Thy favor to behold and blessThy servant, the President of the United States, and all others inauthority,'--and the rest of the Episcopal collect. 'Danforth,' said he,'I have repeated those prayers night and morning, it is now fifty-fiveyears.' And then he said he wo
uld go to sleep. He bent me down over himand kissed me; and he said, 'Look in my Bible, Captain, when I am gone.'And I went away.
"But I had no thought it was the end: I thought he was tired and wouldsleep. I knew he was happy, and I wanted him to be alone.
"But in an hour, when the doctor went in gently, he found Nolan hadbreathed his life away with a smile. He had something pressed close tohis lips. It was his father's badge of the Order of the Cincinnati.
"We looked in his Bible, and there was a slip of paper at the placewhere he had marked the text.--
"'They desire a country, even a heavenly: wherefore