HALE
HALE
provisions, secured the crew and brought the
vessel and lier cargo to shore, distributing the
food among his famished companions. He was
made captain of " Congress's Own," a company
of Connecticut rangers, made up of picked men,
and with this company took part in scouting
duty. Learning that Washington had an impor-
tant service for which he asked for volunteers,
he was directed to the commander-in-chief at the
house of Robert Murray, a Quaker merchant on
Murray Hill. Here he was entrusted with a
secret mission on which he volunteered despite
the efforts of his friends to dissuade him. His
reply to their warnings was: " Gentlemen, I owe
to my country the accomplishment of an object
so important and so much desired by the com-
mander of our armies. I know no mode of
obtaining the information but by assuming a
disguise and passing into the enemy's camp. I
am fully sensible of the consequences of discovery
and capture in such a situation. I wish to be
useful and every kind of service necessary for
the public good becomes honorable by being
necessary." He visited the British camp on
Long Island disguised as a Tory sclioolteacher,
obtained drawings of the fortifications, and
retired across the island to Huntington on the
north shore expecting there a boat to ferry him to
Norwalk, Conn., when he was captured, carried
to the Halifax, a British guard-ship, and taken
before Gen. William Howe at the residence of
James Beekman at Mount Pleasant, New York
city, on the East river. The information he had
gained was concealed between the soles of his
shoes and when it was secured he was condemned
as a spy and sentenced to be hanged the next
morning. Committed to the care of the British
provost marshal, William Cunningham, he was
confined in the greenhouse of the Beekman
mansion, and he was denied the attendance of a
minister, the privilege of the possession of a
Bible, or the assurance of the delivery of letters
written to friends; and his last messages of love
to mother, sister and betrothed were destroyed
before his eyes. On Sunday morning, Sept. 23,
1776, he was taken to the apple orchard on the
premises and with the fatal noose about his neck
he was directed to mount a short ladder and
from this he spoke his last message to mankind :
'* I only regret that I have but one life to lose
for my country." His body was placed in an
unmarked grave and its location was never
disclosed. A rude stone was set up beside his
father's grave in the Coventry churchyard and
in 1837 the Hale monument association was
organized and a monument of Quincy granite
was erected in 1846 at a cost of §3,734. The state
of Connecticut erected a statue of Hale in the
capitol grounds, Hartford, at a cost of $5,000,
^6;^2^^,^^
and the Sons of the Revolution commissioned the
sculptor McMonnies to execute a statue in bronze
which was erected in City Hall Park, New York
city, and unveiled Nov. 25, 1893. The place of
his execution is located by the best authorities at
the junction of Market street and East Broadway,
New York city, and the date is Sept. 22, 1776.
HALE, Nathan, journalist, was born in West- hampton, Mass., Aug. 16, 1784; son of the Rev. Enoch and Octavia (Throop) Hale ; and a nephew of Nathan Hale (1755-1776). His father, Enoch, was the first minister at Westhampton, Mass., 1779-1837. Nathan was graduated at Williams college, A.B., in 1804, A.M., 1810; tutored at Phillips academy, Exeter, N.H., 1804- 06; studied law in Troy, N.Y., and was admitted to the bar in Boston, Mass., in 1810. He practised his profession there, 1810-14; edited the Boston Weekly Mes- senger, and in March, 1814, purchased the Boston Daily Adver- tiser, which he ed- ited, 1814-63. It
was the first daily newspaper published in Boston; was in politics Federal, Whig and Republican; opposed the Missouri and Nebraska bills, 1820 and 1854, and was the pioneer news- paper in the east to advocate the free colonization of Kansas. Mr. Hale also edited and published the Monthly Chronicle, 1840-42, and as a member of the Anthology club, helped in 1815 to found the Xorth American Review. He also helped to found the Christian Examiner in 1823. As acting chairman of the Massachusetts board of internal improvements in 1828, he directed public thought toward railways as available methods of trans- portation, and he was made the first president of the Boston & Worcester railroad, the first organization in New England to use steam power in propelling cars over railways. He continued at the head of the affairs of the road for nineteen years and was first president of the Boston & Al- bany road. He also advocated the introduction of water into the city of Boston and was chair- man of the first board of water commissioners. He served in both branches of tlie state legisla- ture and as a delegate to the state constitutional conventions of 1820 and 1858. He was married in 1816 to Sarah Preston, sister of Edward Everett. The}' had children : Nathan, journalist; Luci'etia Peabody, author; Susan, artist; Charles, diplomatist and editor; and Edward Everett,
