Jean Christie Root

“ We know that any reference to the prison ships in New York Harbor sets Cunningham before us as a cowardly murderer, starving men to death by depriving them of rations which the English supplied for them, and which he sold, pocketing the proceeds. He stands alone on a pedestal of infamy.
The letters that Hale had written and left, as he hoped, to be delivered to his friends, Cunningham ruthlessly destroyed, giving as his reason that "the rebels should not know that they had a man in their army who could die with so much firmness." ”

“ To Elizabeth Strong Hale we can give but a passing notice. There is not, it is believed, one word that she wrote now in existence, nor any record left of that gracious womanhood, save a [Pg 6] name on an obscure gravestone. But what brave-hearted mother would not count it well worth while to leave, for the coming years, the impress she left upon her many children; one of them alone destined to carry to coming generations of Americans the assurance that such a son could only have been borne by one of the noblest of mothers. ”

“ With this tribute we close, believing that the tardy justice accorded to our martyr-hero is destined to become a nation-wide loyalty; that the day will yet come when our nation, as a nation, will recognize the nobility of nature displayed, and will assign a high place to the brave lad who so sublimely relinquished all that life held, and all that coming years might bring, to die for his country,—our country,—the high-souled Nathan Hale. ”

“ Through these flags of truce—and perhaps others—were obtained all the positive knowledge that Hale's friends were ever able to secure; but the unvarnished story, told by Captain Montressor, gave all that was essential to reveal to his friends his manly attitude when in the presence of General Howe, and his calmness and dignity when he was awaiting execution; while his last unpremeditated but immortal words, in reply to Cunningham's taunt, proved to all his friends that he had died as he had lived—a Christian patriot, and a hero. ”

“ The dignity of the address, the assured ease with which he speaks, the sense of the Yale bond, as strong then as it ever has been, all show the only boyish thing about the speaker, namely, his sense [Pg 18] of the superiority of Linonia, then nearly twenty years old, to the struggling new society of "The Brothers," less than eight years old. All this brings before us very vividly a boy in years, but a man in thoughts and aspirations, ardent and scholarly, and full of a noble ambition that looked forward, as do all ambitious students in their college days, to years of generous life. ”

“ This much for the athletic life of Hale in his student days. It was only natural to such a man that whatever he was—friend, student, teacher, or soldier—he should carry zest and earnestness to all his work, even as he carried his manliness, his courtesy, and his unquenchable spirit. ”

“ One is impressed, too, most profoundly, by the realization that, although Elizabeth Strong Hale died so early, as lives are now measured,—she was only forty,—to few women in any land who have reached the appointed limit of human life have been given the remarkable power of leaving to so many descendants such warmth of feeling and such nobility of nature as passed through that century of her descendants. ”

“ Well, also, that in his army were men ready for any enterprise of danger, for any sacrifice that duty might demand.
Washington proceeded to New York, to ultimate victory, to final and permanent fame. Nathan Hale went also, simply as a captain of a Connecticut company,—he not to victory, not to immediate fame, but to something higher in one sense than either victory or fame, and to a service well worth a man's doing. ”

“ Such connections as this man add even a higher luster to the genealogy of Elizabeth Strong Hale, and lessen our wonder that a son of hers, while hardly more than a boy, could face the duty and calmly accept the responsibility that he felt rested upon him.
As may easily be inferred, the Hale boys, Enoch and Nathan, were not forgotten by their home friends while making honorable records in college, and forming pleasant friendships outside the college walls—then the happy lot of all the best men in college—among the cultured families of what was then a small New England city. ”

“ I know that without men, without arms, without ammunition, without anything fit for the accommodation of a soldier, little is to be done, and what is mortifying, I know that I cannot stand justified to the world without exposing my own weakness, and injuring the cause, by declaring my wants which I am determined not to do farther than unavoidable necessity brings every man acquainted with them. ”

“ For the third time, Providence appears to have thwarted the shrewdest plans of the enemies of America. First came the fog in New York Bay, enabling Washington to withdraw his troops from Brooklyn without the knowledge of the British; second, the knowledge of Hale's fate and the preservation of his last words by a humane English officer, despite the malice of Provost Marshal Cunningham; third, and apparently most important of all, the capture of André, involving the defeat of Arnold's traitorous plans to ruin his country's cause. ”

“ Although it is now known that Hale was not executed near City Hall Park, in some respects there could be no more fitting location for a monument to him than this, perhaps the busiest con [Pg 112] flux of human beings that anywhere crowd this great city. Thousands pass this statue, learning from it their first lessons in American history. Hundreds have stopped, seeing this bareheaded, dauntless man, evidently doomed to die, to try to learn whence he came and why he stands there, appealing to the noblest patriotism—patriotism that must touch the heart of any man who knows the love of country. ”

“ Hale's grandfather, Joseph Strong, represented Coventry for sixty-five sessions in the General Assembly of Connecticut, and when he was ninety years of age he presided over the town meeting, suggesting by that deed a man of some vigor, for town meetings were no playdays in those early years. His descendants, active in whatever their hands found to do,—in the ministry, the law, business, or politics,—were long prominent in New England and New York, and doubtless many are to-day still helping to mold their country's future. ”

“ May you live long and happily, and at last die satisfied with the pleasures of this world, and go hence to that world where joys shall never cease, and pleasures never end! Dear Gentlemen, farewell!"
Not only in speeches but also in deeds Hale proved his love for Linonia. He is said to have contributed some of his own books to the library of the Society, and to have coöperated with Timothy Dwight and James Hillhouse in promoting its growth. ”