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CAPT. NATHAN HALE. 
 
 AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT GROTON, CONNECTICUT, 
 
 HALE MEMOEIAL DAY, 
 
 September 7, 1881, 
 
 By EDWARD Er^^'^HALE. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 A. WILLIAMS & CO., WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 1881. 
 
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CAPT. NATHAN HALE, 
 
 I AM to give you a short account of the short life of 
 Nathan Hale and of his death. I owe this privilege to 
 the accident of birth, of which I gladly avail myself, 
 and wilt not exceed my privilege. I shall leave it to 
 others, who are around me now, who are far more fit 
 than I am, to study the lessons of that short life of his, 
 and to impress them upon you. 
 
 I do not remember any other occasion, when an as- 
 sembly so large as this came together, expecting any 
 man to give the biography of a young man who had died 
 more than a century before, when he had hardly at- 
 tained manhood. It is certainly exceptional, that any 
 biographer or eulogist, after a century has passed, 
 should be speaking to thousands of persons who still 
 take a fresh interest in a career so short, almost all the 
 events of which passed in those early years, when the 
 hero of them was, in the eyes of the law, at least, a boy. 
 But Connecticut would not have been true to her his- 
 tory, nor to the honorable place which it holds in the 
 history of the nation, had she permitted the series of 
 centennials to pass by, without solemnly devoting one 
 day to the memory of this young man. His short life 
 illustrates much which is most striking in that honor- 
 able history of hers. Its incidents cannot be too care- 
 fully remembered, if men would know what the Rev- 
 olution was, and by what motives it was carried through. 
 And we should begin another century unfitly, if we 
 permitted the first century to close without distinct ref- 
 erence to such patriotism and to such sacrifice. 
 
Nathan Hale was born on the 6th of June, 1755, in 
 Coventry, hard by us here, a town in which one would 
 be glad, then or now, to have been born. He was born 
 from a mother whom one would have been proud to have 
 been born from, the son of a father whom one would be 
 glad to call father. His early education, in the midst of 
 a large family of brothers and sisters, was the education 
 of that distinctly domestic type, under definite religious 
 direction, which one is tempted to call a New England 
 education, when one speaks of the best custom of those 
 days. It seems to have been simple without austerity, 
 religious without terror ; it looked forward to the best, 
 and upward to the noblest ; and there was no service to 
 man or God to which the boy trained in such influences 
 of home, neighborhood, and Church, might not aspire. 
 With his brother Enoch, scarcely a year older than he, 
 Nathan Hale entered Yale College when he was four- 
 teen years old, having in view, perhaps, even then, the 
 profession of a minister, which he certainly had in view 
 afterward. He thus hoped to enter the service both of 
 God and of man. 
 
 Before I go further, may I say one word on the visi- 
 ble effect of such distinctly religious training, as given 
 in these old Puritan congregations of New England, in 
 the political struggle of all that time ? No man under- 
 stands the political history of the Revolution, who does 
 not remember what for a century and a half had been 
 the religious and ecclesiastical history of these New 
 En glanders. 
 
 They went into the contest with such confidence in 
 their own local governments, and in their sufficiency to 
 combine with others like themselves, that, really, single 
 towns declared war, separately, against George HI,, 
 the most powerful monarch of his time. Where did. 
 such towns learn that lesson of self-reliance .'* How did 
 they learn with it the other lesson equally important, — - 
 that, when a great occasion should arise, such separate 
 communities would stand together, shoulder to shoulder, 
 as if they had been united in the most absolute political 
 order .? Why, that was simply the lesson which the 
 
5 
 
 Congregational Order had been teaching them from the 
 beginning ! In that order, every church is absolutely 
 separate for its own affairs, while it finds no difficulty in 
 uniting, in absolute unity, with its sister churches 
 against the common enemy of mankind. A hundred 
 and fifty years had been teaching that double lesson to 
 the serious citizens of the Connecticut congregations. 
 Well, that is the central lesson of the civil liberty of 
 to-day, — the lesson of local independence for local pur- 
 poses, and of vital organic unity for all national pur- 
 poses. It is that double lesson which gives the life and 
 force to every constitution of government which 
 the last century has called into being. I do not care 
 where you find such a constitution. It may be the 
 freshly torn parchment of Bulgaria ; it may be the lat- 
 est constitution of poor Spain : in it, you would find 
 tills effort to harmonize local independence and national 
 unity, which first took form successfully when men united 
 the independent congregations of New England in the 
 unity of spirit in a Congregational order. When these 
 men had States to construct, they had their old examples 
 and successes in the Church to guide them. 
 
 It is well remembered, among our New London 
 friends here, that when young Hale addressed the town- 
 meeting just after the battle of Lexington, with the 
 audacity of boyhood, — for he was not yet twenty years 
 old, — he cried, " Let us never lay down our arms till we 
 have achieved our independence." The late Mr. Mar- 
 vin, then a child, sat upon his father's knee, and turned 
 and asked his father what the word "independence" 
 meant. What did Hale mean by it ? Where had he 
 learned the. word.? He had learned it in the history 
 of the New England churches. It is those churches 
 which gave the very word to the English language. 
 You will not find it in Shakspere. You will not find 
 it in Spenser. You will find it only as applied to the 
 religious organizations of Englishmen, if you find it 
 in Lord Bacon. The " Independents," who crossed to 
 Holland under Robinson and under Bradford, landed at 
 Plymouth, the men who had organized their infant con- 
 
gregations under Brown and Robinson, the men who 
 had crossed to Holland, and under Win slow and Brad- 
 ford and Brewster had landed at Plymouth, were the 
 men who gave to your language that word, now so 
 august in your history. And it was to an audience 
 who remembered that history that Hale, who remem- 
 bered it too, used the word in that bold prophecy of 
 the beginning. He spoke that word in April, 1775. 
 This is before the date of the controverted Mecklen- 
 burg resolutions. I am surrounded on this platform 
 by those who know better than I do. Let me ask 
 them if there is on record any public demand for "in- 
 dependency" earlier than this bold proposal of the boy 
 Nathan Hale. 
 
 The building in which the Union School was kept by 
 Hale is still standing. It had been recently built by the 
 proprietors, who had obtained incorporation, after Hale 
 became the preceptor of the schools, in October, 1774.* 
 There are many persons before me who have heard 
 their fathers and mothers tell of the spirit with which 
 Hale taught. The regular school was of thirty-two 
 boys, "about half of whom were Latiners, and all but 
 one of the rest were writers." In addition to this, he 
 kept for young ladies, through the summer from five to 
 seven every morning, another school, which was at- 
 tended by about twenty scholars. The rising of the 
 sun would seem to have been on a different calendar 
 from ours, — or the habits of the young people. His 
 school-house was very convenient, he writes. You have 
 seen it, and can judge. He was a favorite in society. 
 Handsome, athletic, frank, wide-awake in the great pop- 
 ular questions which excited society, and true to the 
 old creed of every Connecticut man, — independence in 
 religion and independence in government, — he "en- 
 deared himself to young and old. He had, in the fare- 
 well exercises at New Haven, discussed the question 
 whether the education of daughters be not more neg- 
 lected than that of sons. Here, in New London, he was 
 
 *Mr. Allyn has placed an admirable engraving of it in his memorial volume. 
 
in a high way to reform that error, if error there were. 
 He began to contemplate seriously making the teach- 
 ing of the young his profession for life, and New Lon- 
 don his home. Had he done so, you and I might have 
 seen and talked with this delightful old man. We 
 might have heard him tell of this and that abortive 
 effort for freedom which failed, because the sons of 
 Connecticut stayed at home or left it to bounty-jumpers 
 to fight their battles. But, thank God! his was another 
 destiny, and this was not to be. 
 
 At that time, Hale was not two years out of college. 
 In college, he had endeared himself to his instructors 
 and to his classmates. His taste for study, and for the 
 best study, was distinctly formed ; and, even in the 
 scanty memorials we have of his short life, it is clear 
 that he was using books, and the best books, thor- 
 oughly, carefully, and in every way well. Of that class 
 in Yale College, many men gave themselves fully and 
 freely to the country's service. The flower of Yale 
 and of Harvard flung themselves into the army, as 
 they did in these later years of another war for liberty. 
 It is to be observed, indeed, by the student of the 
 American revolution, that, like all great struggles for 
 popular rights, it was a war fought by young men. 
 General Hawley alluded yesterday to the youth of 
 Lafayette, whose one hundred and twenty-fourth birth- 
 day that day celebrated. And, when he joined the 
 staff of Washington, Lafayette found men near his 
 own age. Hamilton, indeed, was younger than he. 
 Washington himself, whom they so venerated as a 
 father, was in his forty-fourth year when the war 
 began. Ward, who was superannuated as an old man 
 unfit for command, was forty-eight when he was su- 
 perseded. Knox was but twenty-five when the war 
 began, and many of his companions were not thirty. 
 The young republic needed young blood, and she 
 found it. She was willing to avail herself of the tried 
 wisdom of a Trumbull and a Franklin. She was not 
 afraid to trust the young enthusiasm of a Hamilton 
 and a Hale. 
 
8 
 
 During all Hale's residence in New London as a 
 teacher, he was, in the eye of the law, an ''infant." 
 He was not, therefore, technically a ''freeman." But 
 he was enrolled in the militia, and he was profoundly 
 interested in the military discipline which the time 
 required. It is his prominence in the community, as 
 a favorite with the young, which permits one not yet 
 of age to speak at the meeting called after the battle of 
 Lexington. He enrolls himself as a volunteer, writes 
 to Coventry for his father's permission to serve in one 
 of the companies of the new establishment, and having, 
 of course, received that permission from the sturdy 
 patriot, enlists in Webb's regiment, the Seventh Con- 
 necticut, and asks the proprietors of the school to 
 excuse him from future duty. The regiment was one 
 raised by order of the General Assembly that year for 
 home defence, and for the protection of the country at 
 large. In this regiment. Hale was first lieutenant ; 
 and, after the first of September, captain. The com- 
 pany consisted of seventy-one men, and was organized 
 before the end of July. The first service was in the 
 neighborhood of New London; but on the 14th of 
 September it was marched, by Washington's orders, to 
 the camp at Cambridge. 
 
 We have his brief diary of the march of the detach- 
 ment. It passed by Rehoboth, through Attleborough, 
 Wrentham, Walpole, and Dedham to Roxbury, where 
 Hale's company encamped on the evening of Septem- 
 ber 26. They were afterward transferred to Cambridge 
 and Charlestown, and encamped at the foot of Winter 
 Hill. You will remember that when, on the 17th of 
 June, your own General Putnam grimly retired from 
 Bunker Hill, which he had done so much to hold, he 
 said he would be willing to sell another hill to King 
 George at the same price. There was no lack of hills 
 in America. Winter Hill was the next hill ; and here, 
 for most of that winter, Webb's regiment was posted. 
 On the 30th of January, it was removed to the right 
 wing of the army at Roxbury, under the immediate di- 
 rection of Ward. In this service, it was able to partici- 
 
pate in the great enterprise of the occupation of Dor- 
 chester Heights, in the work of one night there, — work 
 which the English officers of the time described as if it 
 had been a work of enchantment, — drove the Enghsh 
 fleet and army from the harbor of Boston, and, as it 
 proved, from the territory of the United Colonies. 
 For nearly five months afterward, no foot of an enemy 
 pressed the soil of Slates which were determined to 
 be free. 
 
 Hale's account of the way in which his men and he 
 himself spent that autumn and winter is itself an inter- 
 esting contribution to one of the most interesting peri- 
 ods of our history. From the city from which those 
 men drove an alien enemy, you have asked me, kindly, 
 to come to address you. 
 
 This gives me a right to pause a moment to recog- 
 nize the solid work done in the siege of Boston by 
 the Connecticut contingent. General Hawley has 
 alluded to the zeal and energy of Putnam. In the 
 story of Bunker Hill, the place which Knowlton with 
 his regiment held, the exposed left flank of the Amer- 
 ican force, — proved to be the post of honor as of 
 danger. When Prescott and his men were driven 
 from the redoubt, they were received behind Knowl- 
 ton's force, which preserved its military order, and in 
 military order covered the retreat. Connecticut regi- 
 ments have had that same thing to do in later wars. 
 What seemed the lethargy of Washington and the 
 American army, in the early summer, was, as we now 
 know, due to their deficiencies in ammunition and in 
 artillery. From the last need, they were relieved by 
 the result of the Connecticut conquest of Ticonde- 
 roga, so soon as the snow on - the Green Mountains 
 became practicable, that the mortars and artillery might 
 be carried across New England to direct their fire upon 
 Boston. 
 
 Of that whole winter, the greatest success was not 
 a feat of arms. It was the success, not to be par- 
 alleled, hard to understand or to believe, by which 
 one army was disbanded and another enlisted, in the 
 
lO 
 
 face of an enemy of equal, if not superior, numbers. 
 The besieging army was virtually an army of minute 
 men while the year 1775 lasted. After New Year's day, 
 in the year 1776, it was an army of men enlisted by the 
 Continent, and enlisted, in most instances, for the war. 
 Every student of our history remembers the intense in- 
 terest with which Washington watched over this change 
 of his forces. In Hale's Diary, the student has the 
 chance to follow it in its detail. Take such an entry as 
 this : " Promised the men, if they would tarry another 
 month, they should have my wages for that time." It 
 was, I suppose, a face-to-face discussion with almost 
 every private, to induce him to enlist under the new 
 establishment. This effort ends when, having given 
 his own pay to his men, he borrows from Capt. Leaven- 
 worth the money to go home with, giving him an order 
 for his pay to January, and returns to his father's house. 
 He goes home, that he may enlist a new company there. 
 One month of that frank, friendly, loyal zeal of his is 
 enough, and, on the 27th of January, 1776, the boy, not 
 yet of age, arrives with recruits who enlist for the war 
 and will stand by to the end, at General Ward's head- 
 quarters at Roxbury. 
 
 In the great achievement of the fortification of Dor- 
 chester Heights, on the 5th of March, which we owe 
 to the military genius of Thomas and Ward and Wash- 
 ington, Hale's regiment seems, as said, to have shared. 
 When the English were fairly on their way to Halifax, 
 Washington foresaw their effort to occupy New York, 
 and detached Lee and Heath and most of his army to 
 that city. With this contingent was Webb's regiment, 
 and with that army the rest of young Hale's life was 
 spent. He marched with his regiment, which was one 
 of five who came from Cambridge to this place, and 
 sailed hence to New York. This was in the last week of 
 March.* Through the exciting summer which followed, 
 Ae was in active service. Of this service, a few letters 
 preserve our chief memorial. The first important duty 
 
 * See Enoch Hale's Diary in the Appendix. 
 
II 
 
 in which he was engaged was the cutting out of an 
 EngUsh sloop laden with supplies, which, though under 
 the guns of the " Asia," man-of-war, was not safe from 
 the amphibious seamen, soldiers of Webb's regiment. 
 At the head of a boat load of men, Hale boarded her at 
 midnight, and brought her in, in triumph to the pier. 
 Her stores were distributed as clothing and as food in 
 the army. It was the double capacity of these men, 
 trained for either element, which kept this regiment 
 from Thames River, in New York. At one time, it 
 was put on the list for detachment to Canada. " But 
 the question was asked whether we had many seamen, 
 and the answer. being yes, we were erased, and another 
 put down in our place." 
 
 My little story is hastening to its end. But I will 
 not come to that end without saying a word of the 
 work those men did for American liberty, who served 
 it by sea as well as by land. Standing where I stand, 
 in sight of the river from which sailed so many of the 
 American privateersmen, I should but half tell my 
 story if I did not say that word. The truth is that 
 the history of the naval enterprise of the Revolu- 
 tion has never been adequately written out, perhaps 
 cannot be ; and, in the general estimate of the Revolu- 
 tion, the effects of that enterprise are not enough re- 
 garded. At the time when Hale died, the war with 
 America was universally popular in England. Five 
 years after, the House of Commons voted that they 
 who advised a continuation of the war in America were 
 enemies of their country ; and undoubtedly the House 
 of Commons reflected' English opinion. It is my be- 
 lief, and I think history will show, that the steady 
 change in English opinion in those five years was 
 wrought more by the losses of English merchants on 
 the seas than by the losses of English armies on the 
 land. Even before the French alliance, the annual 
 naval appropriations of Parliament were of necessity 
 larger than those of the army. In the year 1777 
 alone, only forty English vessels out of two hundred 
 engaged in the African trade escaped the American 
 
cruisers. Of the fleet that traded between Ireland and 
 the West Indies, scarcely half escaped. Two hundred 
 and fifty vessels in the West Indian trade, with cargoes 
 amounting to ten million dollars, were captured in a 
 single year. We do not wonder to read that for the 
 insurance of a vessel for a single voyage more than 
 fifty per cent, was paid in England. This war upon 
 the sea was, in practice, carried on by the privateers of 
 Essex County in Massachusetts, and by your own Con- 
 necticut seamen here. At the end of the war, the 
 privateer fleet of the port of Salem alone counted 
 twenty-six ships and thirty-three smaller vessels, which 
 carried four thousand men and twelve hundred and 
 eighty guns. The fleet of New London and of this 
 river was probably as strong until the events which 
 yesterday celebrated. The incursion which resulted 
 in the burning of New London was the vengeance of 
 England against this harbor of her enemies. 
 
 [General Hawley, behind the speaker, said, at this mo- 
 ment, that it was on record that eight hundred and three 
 prizes were brought into New London in the coarse of 
 the war.] 
 
 Capt. Hale's web-footed soldiers were called on all 
 that summer, in their double capacity. I have no doubt 
 but they were at work with Glover's Marblehead men 
 all that critical night of the 29th of August, when the 
 army retreated from Brooklyn to the city of New York ; 
 for McDougal had the charge of the transportation, and 
 Webb's regiment was in McDougal's brigade. A week 
 before, in Hale's last letter to his brother, he describes 
 a spirited attempt made by Sergeant Fosdick, of his 
 own company, and four privates to set fire to the frig- 
 ate *' Phoenix." The attempt was made doubtless under 
 Hale's own orders ; and, though it did not succeed as 
 fully as had been hoped, the men received the thanks 
 and rewards of the General, and the ''Phoenix" and her 
 companion returned to the Narrows. *' It is agreed on 
 all hands," Washington writes, '* that our people be- 
 haved with great resolution and intrepidity." Though 
 
13 
 
 the " Phoenix " escaped, one of her tenders was captured, 
 and four cannon and six swivels were taken from her. 
 
 After the letter describing this gallant affair, we have 
 a few broken notes in Hale's Diary, which closes sud- 
 denly with a memorandum of the first skirmishing be- 
 fore the battle of Long Island. After this event, we 
 must trace his short history, with no help from his own 
 pen. Through the month of September, Washington 
 is steadily driven further and further up the island. 
 After the battle of Long Island, Knowlton had organ- 
 ized, under his own command, a separate corps of 
 officers and men from New England regiments. This 
 corps is spoken of as Knowlton's Rangers. The officers 
 and men had volunteered for this service, and on the rolls 
 of their own regiments are spoken of as "detached on 
 command." They received their orders directly from 
 Washington and from Putnam, and were of great ser- 
 vice in watching the enemy along the Harlem front. 
 In this little corps of one hundred and fifty men. Hale 
 was one of the captains. Stephen Brown and Thomas 
 Grosvenor were two others. They bore off the honors 
 of the battle of Harlem Heights. In that action, 
 Knowlton was killed. " I asked him," said his Capt. 
 Brown, "if he was badly wounded. He told me he 
 was ; but says he, * I do not value my life, if we do but 
 get the day.' When gasping in the agonies of death, 
 all his inquiry was if we had drove the enemy." They 
 did drive the enemy, they did win the day ; and 
 Knowlton gave his life for the victory. The spot where . 
 he fell can be perfectly identified. It is, I believe, in 
 one of the most picturesque parts of the Central Park. 
 It is of Knowlton that Washington said in General 
 Orders that he was a gallant and brave officer, who 
 would have been an honor to any country. The day 
 will come when some group of bronze in the great 
 Central Park shall bear this inscription in memory of 
 one of Connecticut's noblest sons. 
 
 But where is Hale, as these weeks pass by.? "The 
 gallant and brave Colonel Knowlton, who would have 
 been an honor to any country, having fallen yesterday, 
 
14 
 
 while gloriously fighting, Capt. Brown is to take com- 
 mand of the party lately led by Colonel Knowlton." 
 These are Washington's words in General Orders the 
 next day. Hale is not wont to be absent from the field 
 of danger. It is another line of duty to which he is 
 called; and once and again, far away, he hears the 
 shots of distant battles, and wonders whether they are 
 aimed by his foes or by his friends. 
 
 He was on special service ; on difficult service ; ser- 
 vice called dishonorable, but service of his country. 
 "We have not been able to obtain the least informa- 
 tion," said Washington, on the 6th of September, '' of 
 the enemy's plans." In sheer despair at the need of 
 better information than the Tories of New York City 
 would give him, the great commander consulted his 
 council, and at their direction summoned Knowlton to 
 ask for some volunteer of intelligence, who would find 
 his way into the English lines, and bring back some tid- 
 ings that could be relied upon. Knowlton summoned 
 a number of officers, and stated to them the wishes of 
 their great chief. The appeal was received with dead 
 silence. It is said that Knowlton appealed to a non- 
 commissioned ofificer, a Frenchman, who was an old 
 soldier. He did so only to receive the natural reply, 
 " I am willing to be shot, but not to be hung." Knowl- 
 ton felt that he must report his failure to Washington, 
 when the youngest of his captains spoke, and Nathan 
 Hale said, " I will undertake it." He had come late to 
 the meeting. He was pale with recent sickness. But 
 he saw an opportunity to serve, and did the duty next 
 his hand. 
 
 We have on record from his college classmate, Hull, 
 the statement which Hale himself made at the moment. 
 Hull says he himself put fairly before Hale the danger 
 of the task and the ignominy attached to it in failure. 
 Hale replied, " I wish to be useful, and every kind of 
 service necessary to the public good becomes honorable 
 by being necessary. If the exigencies of my country 
 demand a peculiar service, its claims to perform that 
 service are imperious." These are the last words which 
 
15 
 
 we can report from him till the moment of his death. 
 He promised Hull to take his arguments into consider- 
 ation, but Hull never heard from him again. 
 
 In the second week of September, he left the camp 
 for Stamford, with Stephen Hampstead, a sergeant in 
 Webb's regiment, from whom we have the last direct 
 account of his journey. With Hampstead and Ansel 
 Wright, who was his servant in camp, he left his uni- 
 form and some other articles of property. He crossed 
 to Long Island in citizen's dress, and, as Hampstead 
 thought, took with him his college diploma, meaning to 
 assume the aspect of a Connecticut school-master visit- 
 ing New York in the hope to establish himself. He 
 landed near Huntington, or Oyster Bay, and directed 
 the boatman to return for him at a time fixed by him, 
 the 20th of September. He made his way into New 
 York, and there, for a week or more apparently, prose- 
 cuted his inquiries. He returned on the day fixed, 
 and awaited his boat. It appeared, as he thought ; and 
 he made a signal from the shore. Alas ! he had mis- 
 taken the boat. She was from an English frigate which 
 lay screened by a point of woods, and had come in for 
 water. Hale attempted to retrace his steps, but was 
 too late.* 
 
 He was ordered to remain, was seized and exam- 
 ined. On his person were the notes he had taken, 
 written, as it proved, in Latin. They compromised him 
 at once. He was taken on board the frigate, the cap- 
 tain of which expressed his grief that he had to detain 
 so fine a fellow. There was not a day's delay, and 
 Hale was sent back immediately to New York. 
 
 He was at once sent well guarded to New York. 
 He landed there when the city was in the terrors of a 
 great conflagration. It was on that 21st of Septem- 
 ber, when nearly a quarter of the town was burned 
 
 *In the rage and distress of the excitement of the time, the rumor spread that Hale 
 was betrayed by a Tory kinsman. But the narrative in the text, which is that of Solo- 
 mon Worden, of Oyster Bay, gives no room for any such treachery; and I know no 
 evidence for it, beyond " 'tis saui." I know that my father did not believe the story of 
 treachery: I do not think his fatlier did. The fact that the disgrace was now attached to 
 one cousin, now to another, shows almost certainly that it belongs to neither. 
 
 E. E. H. 
 
i6 
 
 down. Nearly five hundred houses were destroyed. 
 In the midst of the confusion and terror, Hale is 
 marched up to Howe's head-quarters, and there he 
 meets his doom. 
 
 The trial was short. Hale was not there to prevari- 
 cate. Nay, the papers on his person were his con- 
 demnation. He was to be hanged the next morning. 
 And only one thing worse can be added to the agony 
 of such a death. He is to be hanged by WiUiam Cun- 
 ningham, provost-marshal of the English army. 
 
 Of the sleepless night which followed, we have little 
 memorial. He wrote to his father and family. Cun- 
 ningham destroyed the letters before his eyes. "The 
 rebels shall not know they have a man who can die so 
 bravely." He asked for a Bible : his request was re- 
 fused. At morning, he is marched out to the gallows. 
 Cunningham, in derision, bids him speak to the people. 
 And Hale turns and says, in words which are immor- 
 tal,— 
 
 " I only regret that I have but one life to give to my 
 country." 
 
 The first news Washington receives of the adventure 
 is by the flag of truce by which Howe sends him spe- 
 cial word that his messenger is hanged. 
 
 Thus ends a martyr's life. Hardly three months had 
 passed since he was twenty-one years old. 
 
 It is to be wished that some one had asked Washing- 
 ton, while he lived, what was the special information 
 for which he was willing to detach an officer of such 
 worth, under circumstances so critical. Of that object^ 
 no record was made. But it is easy to see how difficult 
 yet how necessary it was, in the first confusion, — the 
 chaos of the retreat from Long Island and the second 
 retreat back on the island of New York, — to learn 
 what was the English force, and, if possible, what the 
 purposes of the commander. The news of Hale's 
 death was received by his friends with an agony of 
 distress. It happened, five years after, that the whole 
 history was recalled again, when Andre was captured 
 
and tried. Major Tallmadge, who had charge of Andre 
 as a prisoner, broke to him his own fate by telling him 
 the story of Hale, which Andre knew only too well. 
 Andre himself alluded to it on his trial. I think Clin- 
 ton refers to Hale in his note on Andre s case. I think 
 he means to say that Hale's death was Howe's work, not 
 his. " Thou canst not say I did it." * From that time 
 to this time, the parallel between these two young men, 
 both brave, both rash, if you please, and both unfortu- 
 nate, has often been pursued. 
 
 I will not follow it. I am too near in blood and in 
 affection to Hale. I am too far from Andre in training 
 and habit of thought, and in my notion of what is the 
 object of a man's life. This, only, will I say: that, 
 whoever tells Andre's story, as he discusses the end 
 of his life, has to carry the weight of the wretched fact 
 that, in Andre s own letter to his judges pleading for 
 that life, he makes statements which are untrue, and 
 which he knows are untrue when he makes them. No 
 such difficulty hampers the speaker or the writer who 
 tells the short story of Nathan Hale. 
 
 Let me rather close this memorial of one whom I 
 have learned to honor and love, by comparing him with 
 another son of Connecticut, a soldier, and a brave sol- 
 dier, too, who in that day filled a place far larger than 
 Nathan Hale was called to, but whom, this to-day, every 
 man would be glad if he could forget forever. Benedict 
 Arnold went forth to war at the same summons with 
 Hale. He won early honors and preferment, though 
 Dr. Bacon tells me that his honors were always from 
 those who did not know him, and never from Connecti- 
 cut herself. No man asks where is his burial-place. 
 
 * The passage is, " Mr. Washington ought to remember that / had never, z'n any one 
 instance, punished the disaffected colonists wiihin my power with death, but, on the con- 
 trary, had in several shown the most liumane attention to his intercession, even in favor 
 oi avowed spies.'''' It seems to me that, in this passage, Clin'on alludes to Howe. No 
 one has ever complained that Hale's sentence, under the laws of war, was not just. 
 He did not complain himself. It was brutally executed. For this, Howe's excuse must 
 be that a quarter of the city was burning when he pronounced sentence : he was in the 
 flush of success, and doubtless thought the whole matter well-nigh over. Whether a 
 prisoner before him did or did not hold a commission, was or was not in service as a sol- 
 dier, would be of no consequence when the Rebellion was put down, as he probably 
 thought it would be within a few months' time. 
 
i8 
 
 No man, after a hundred years, retraces every step of 
 his life, in fond wish to reproduce his history. When 
 he was born, a fond mother gave to him the name of a 
 Christian saint, of one who had been foremost in the 
 triumphs of the Church, and, to-day, in all the millions 
 of America, there is no man or woman but would as 
 soon call a child by the name of Judas Iscariot as by the 
 name of Benedict. ''Who also betrayed her." This. is 
 his epitaph. A friend of mine, travelling in the East, 
 met an accomplished Englishman, who joined cordially 
 in the intimacies of travel. But, when the American 
 gave his name to the other and asked his in return, he. 
 hesitated, he begged to be excused. '^ Indeed, you will 
 be sorry you asked. You will not like me as well as you 
 do now." No, indeed. For the name was the wretched 
 name of Benedict Arnold ! 
 
 It is not to success in battle, it is not to eloquence of 
 speech, it is to prompt self-sacrifice, it is to readiness 
 to die when one's country calls, that the honors of 
 to-day are given. It is to such sacrifice, such loyalty, 
 and such truth that we owe it, that any man may be 
 proud indeed, this day, that he is called upon to say a 
 halting word in memory of Nathan Hale. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I owe the honor of being asked to dehver this commemorative 
 address to the good fortune of birth. I am the oldest living son 
 of Nathan Hale, who was the oldest son of Enoch Hale, who was 
 the brother of Capt, Nathan Hale, the martyr spy, whom we com- 
 memorate. Enoch Hale was his classmate in college, and bound 
 to him by the closest affection. 
 
 A certain interest then attaches to Enoch Hale's very brief 
 diary of the year 1776, and to its allusions, though ,they be the 
 most concise, to the history of the country. The brevity of these 
 allusions is not to be referred to any sternness or hardness of 
 temper. It springs only from the character of the little "Regis- 
 ter " itself. He seldom gave two lines to the record of a single 
 day, and had no more thought of expressing emotion here than 
 if he had been writing in his cash-book. 
 
 I extract, therefore, the few allusions made to outside history 
 between March and October. They have never before been 
 printed: — " E. E. Hale. 
 
 March 6. — Hear that Boston is cannonaded. Began Saturday 
 night last. 
 
 March 17. — General Howe, etc., leave Boston. 
 
 March 29. — Colonel Miflin goes through Lyme for New York. 
 Five regiments gone by water from New London. Brother Cap- 
 tain gone. 
 
 April']. — Rev. Judson returns [to Cuelsea in Norwich from 
 New London] in the evening. Admiral Hopkins coming in there 
 with the American fleet, with some cannon, etc. ; and the governor 
 from New Providence, and a bomb brig, and two tenders taken 
 from Wallace's fleet. Had a brush with the Glasgow, etc. 
 
 April 8. — General Washington enters Norwich. Write short 
 to Brother Captain. 
 
 April 10. — -Lodge at Rev. Cogswell. Miss Lucy returns from 
 spinning meeting. Spun ninety odd knots of good yarn. Miss 
 spun sixty-three knots, and yesterday Miss spun eighty- 
 four knots. 
 
 April II. — Royal Flint at Weathersville making saltpetre. 
 
 April 15. — Congress has given liberty for a free trade with all 
 nations, except for India teas, excluding the subjects of the 
 King of England and their produce; also for privateering and 
 seizing all English vessels. 
 
 May I. — [Brooklyn.] Williams gives me an elegy on the times, 
 by J. Trumbull. 
 
20 
 
 May 6. — [Westford.] Go to training, pray with the soldiers, 
 and dine with Ensign Robins. 
 
 May 8. — I ride as far as Rev. Welch's. Dine at Rev. Hunt- 
 ington's. See his George Washington. 
 
 May 17. — Continental fast. Preach at Westford. Vide No. 8 
 and 26. 
 
 May 31. — Frost this morning. It kills some brakes and white 
 oak leaves. 
 
 y7me 2. — Snow and wet. [At Westford.] 
 
 Jime 3. — Coal fire. 
 
 Jime 19 — John got home at night. Has received a letter from 
 Nathan, dated 17th at New York. [This letter is lost.] Has sent 
 one for me by the way of Norwich. Not received yet. [This 
 letter is probably that in Stuart's Life, page 6y.'] 
 
 June 20. — Sat down to write again to him, and 
 
 Jiuie 21. — Carry it to Sargeant Nat. Root, with one for John to 
 carry to New York. 
 
 Julys.. — -Training here [Ashford] at Capt. Clark's, to enlist 
 men. Little too backward. Many of the old soldiers think them- 
 selves too good to go without hire. The rich say they may turn 
 out. 
 
 July 2 — Two gentlemen from Philadelphia lodge here. 
 
 July 8 — Capt. Massey and company meet here. 
 
 July 10. — [Coventry.] Independance declared by Continental 
 Congress. [ This line is written in after the other parts of the 
 manusrript.] 
 
 July 11. — Send back the Captain's horse by brother Joseph, 
 who goes to meet the Company there [Ashford] to be mustered. 
 
 July 23. — Get to New Haven about eight o'clock. Put up at 
 Mr. Jeremiah Atwater's. 
 
 July 24. — See the President. Pay him for degrees for myself 
 and brother, $4.00. [These were their degrees as Masters of 
 Arts.] Dine with Hiilhouse, Esq. Drink tea at Rev. Edwards. 
 President makes a blundering hand in giving degrees. Lodge 
 with Robinson. 
 
 July 2^. — [At New Haven.] Dine with Hiilhouse again. Tea 
 at Rev. Whittlesey's. Call upon Cogswell and Fitch. Buy of 
 Fitch McFingal, at one shilling. Sign for four Mr. Dwight's 
 oration. Write to Brother to tell him I have got him his degree. 
 
 Jtily 26. — Leave New Haven. Have had a good Commence- 
 ment. Goodrich made the Cliosophic and Russel the Valedictory; 
 Mr. Dwight the answer. Beside, we had a dispute and dialogue. 
 
 August I. — [Coventry.] Rev. Strong talks of going as Chaplain. 
 
 August 14. — Rev. Strong rode to Simsbury town. The militia 
 going to New York, all on west side of the river in Connecticut, 
 and Col. Wolcott's and Chapman's regiments on the east. Lord 
 Howe's army all collected, it is said, at or near New York. 
 
 August 15. — Write to Brother Captain by Cousin Joseph, who 
 goes with the militia. 
 
21 
 
 August 26. — [Granville.] Hear part of a Tory's trial [Mr. 
 Fowler], etc. 
 
 August -^o. — Committee come to see me. Conclude to return 
 again before I go home ; also to preach to the soldiers before they 
 march. 
 
 September 2. — Clear, but some clouds about noon. Finibh No. 
 35 by noon, and preach it at four o'clock, to a considerable assembly. 
 
 September 4. — Hear of melancholy disaster at New York; our 
 army obliged to leave Long Island and soon New York. 
 
 Septeinber 10. — [Coventry.] Ride with Mr. Lyman home and to 
 Freeman's meeting. Make a prayer at opening of the meeting. 
 Captain Kingsbury and Abram Burnap, Esq., chosen represen- 
 tatives. 
 
 SepteDtber 22. — News of fight at New York, but very imper- 
 fect yet. 
 
 September 24. — Capt. Codey desires me to go and see him and 
 company. March on Thursday. 
 
 Septe7nber 25. — [Granville.] Ride to Hartland, and preach for 
 Rev. Church. Vide No. 37, 38, on a Fast kept on a Proclamation 
 from the Governor to observe it last Thursday ; but not heard of in 
 season at Hartland, so adjourned till to-day. 
 
 September -^o. — Afternoon. Ride to Rev. Strong's, Salmon Brook. 
 Hear a rumor that Capt. Hale, belonging the east side Connecticut 
 River, near Colchester, who was educated at college, was sentenced 
 to hang in the enemy's lines at New York, being taken as a spy, or 
 reconnoitering their camp. Hope it is without foundation. Some- 
 thing troubled at it. Sleep not very well. 
 
 October 2.. — At the meeting-house see Uncle Elnathan Strong, 
 lately from New York. Hear some farther rumors of the Captain, 
 not altogether agreeing with the form-^r. 
 
 October d. — Ride over to West Mountain and preach. Have 
 thirteen cases to mention; four of thanks for safe return from 
 camp, three for two deaths to be sanctified; six persons sick. 
 
 October 15. — Call at Squire William Wolcott's. Get a pass to 
 ride to New York. Saturday, returned to Granville. Friend 
 Lyman gone to the camp at New York. Accounts from my Brother 
 Captain are indeed melancholy ! That, about the second week of 
 September, he went to Stamford, crossed to Long Island (Dr. 
 Waldo writes), and had finished his plans, but, before he could get 
 off, was betrayed, taken, and hanged without ceremony. . . . Some 
 entertain hope that all this is not true, but it is a gloomy, dejected 
 hope. Time may determine. Conclude to go to the camp next 
 week, 
 
 October 21. — Prepare to ride to the camp, and be gone from 
 home two Sabbaths. 
 
 October 23. — Riding to Greenwich. Lodge at Mr. Titus Mead's, 
 twenty-eight miles. Courteously entertained at Mr. Mead's, gratis. 
 Ride to camp. See some friends, John and Richard, and return to 
 Rye Pond, a roundabout way, seventeen miles, in company of 
 John Richard's son. 
 
22 
 
 October 25. — Ride to White Plains and return to the edge of 
 Greenwich. Camp alarmed. Buy a cropper for my horse in the 
 room of one I broke and left the 24th. 
 
 October 26. — Go to camp. See officers of Col. Webb's regi- 
 ment, and talk some of my brother. He went to Stamford and 
 crossed over the sound to Long Island. The next account of him 
 by Col. Montezuxe with a flag, that one Nathaniel Hale, was 
 hanged for a spy, September 22. Aide-de-camp Webb with a flag, 
 informs that, being suspected by his movements that he wanted to 
 get out of New York, was taken up and examined by the general, 
 and, some minutes being found with him, orders were immediately 
 given that he should be hanged. When at the gallows, he spoke and 
 told that he was a Captain in the Continental army, by name Nathan 
 Hale. Some deserters asserted the fact, and described his person. 
 
 Lieut. said he saw a woman that said she was then in New 
 
 York, saw and knew him hanging, having been before acquainted 
 with him. . . . His effects are mostly saved. His money (if he 
 left any) plundered, and considerable due to his under-ofiicers, as 
 well as $25 that belonged to A. Wright and $42 to another which 
 he had in keeping. 
 
 ;/***- 
 
CAPT. NATHAN HALE. 
 
 AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT GROTON, CONNECTICUT, 
 
 HALE MEMORIAL DAY, 
 
 September 7, iSSi, 
 
 By EDWARD E. HALE. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 A. WILLIAMS & CO., WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 1881. 
 
V.4