Nathan Hale Part 1

Nathan Hale.

by Jean Christie Root.

CHAPTER I

NATHAN HALE'S EARLY YEARS

It is to-day a recognized fact that no life worthy of our reverence, or even a life calculated to awaken our fear, is the result of accident.

Whatever may be the character, its basis has been the result of long-developing causes. This the life of Nathan Hale well ill.u.s.trates.

He was born at a time and under influences that were sure to develop the best qualities in him. He was an immediate descendant of the best of the Puritans on both sides of the sea. His great-grandfather, John Hale, was the son of Robert Hale, who came to America in 1632. John Hale graduated from Harvard in 1657 and was the first pastor settled in Beverly, Ma.s.sachusetts, remaining there until he died, an aged man. An ardent patriot, this John Hale, in 1676, gave about one-twelfth of his salary, some seventy pounds, for defense in King Philip's War. When need arose in the French War, he went to Canada as a volunteer, for a threefold purpose,--so that he might accompany a number of his own paris.h.i.+oners, act as chaplain for one of the regiments, and fight when his aid was needed.

Living during the witchcraft trials, he was one of the first to be convinced of the mistaken course pursued. We are not certain as to his approval or disapproval of the progress of the excitement in regard to witchcraft until it became intensely personal to his own family. His wife was, fortunately as the results proved, accused by some misguided person of being a witch. The well-known n.o.bility of her life, and her lovely character, at once convinced all who knew the circ.u.mstances that some terrible mistake had been made by her accuser. And if a mistake had been made in her case, why not in others? At once the deadly power of the delusion was broken and, happily, the tide turned back forever.

There was no question after this of the Rev. Mr. Hale's viewpoint as to witchcraft.

In the very darkest depths of the witchcraft delusion, some ill.u.s.trations of splendid courage and n.o.ble unselfishness were exhibited. Grewsome as it is, we cannot forbear quoting the example of one Giles Cory, condemned to die as a witch, who knew that if he did not confess he had bewitched people, his estate, which he wished his wife and family to inherit, would be forfeited, and that he would be pressed to death instead of being hanged.

Being hanged is a comparatively brief experience, while the other way is prolonged and agonizing. But, for the sake of his family, brave old Giles Cory calmly faced this terrible, lingering death. He must have won from some, if not from all, the feeling that a stout-hearted and generous man had proved his love for his own as no mere words could have done.

John Hale appears to have been a worthy ancestor of the youth Nathan Hale, who, a hundred years later, so freely made a sacrifice of his life.

John Hale's son, Samuel, was Nathan's grandfather; he made his home in Portsmouth, New Hamps.h.i.+re. One of Samuel Hale's sons, bearing his own name, Samuel, was a Harvard man. Another son, Richard, Nathan's father, born February 28, 1717, looking about to find the best farming lands for the support of a future family, moved to Connecticut, and became a farmer in South Coventry, thirty miles east of Hartford. Distinguished from the beginning for his success in whatever he undertook in business affairs, and also as a man of singularly upright character, Deacon Richard Hale won the warmest regard of all who knew him. His advice and help were sought, both in political and religious affairs, to the full limit of the time at his command.

His farm was among the best in that section. The house that he first occupied, probably one already on the place, was as comfortable and convenient as the usual homes of the earlier colonists. Later a larger house was built, big enough to accommodate a family of a dozen or more, and many guests as well. The house in which Nathan lived as a boy is still standing, and has fortunately come down to us with almost no mutilation.

Though the forms and the voices of those who dwelt in them have long since vanished, there still linger about these vacant rooms the most tender and inspiring memories of the lives once developing there, now gone forward; nothing wasted or lost, as we will believe, of anything permanent they strove for or cared for in their dear, earthly home.

To this home Richard Hale, married May 2, 1746, at the age of twenty-nine, brought his young bride, Elizabeth Strong. If Richard Hale's pedigree was a good one, his wife, Elizabeth Strong, came from a family even more finely endowed. The first of her ancestors who came to America was Elder John Strong. He was one of the founders of Dorchester, now a part of Boston; later he helped to found Northampton, Ma.s.sachusetts.

Mrs. Hale's grandfather, Joseph Strong, represented Coventry for sixty-five sessions in the General a.s.sembly 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.

The son of this Justice Joseph Strong was also named Joseph, and called Captain Joseph Strong. In 1724 he married his second cousin, Elizabeth Strong. He, too, was a noted man among the colonists. She, later, became the "grandmother" to whom Nathan so warmly alludes in one of his last letters to his brother. Captain Joseph Strong and his wife were the parents of Elizabeth Strong who, in her nineteenth year, married Richard Hale.

To Elizabeth Strong Hale we can give but a pa.s.sing 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 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 a.s.surance that such a son could only have been borne by one of the n.o.blest of mothers. Dying at the age of forty,--April 21, 1767,--after a married life of twenty-one years, she had performed all the duties then expected from the mistress of a farmer's household in a section where the princ.i.p.al help that could be secured in any time of need came from the voluntary kindnesses of neighbors; for, like one large family, they felt it necessary to "lend a hand" whenever any one of their number was in need. Mrs. Hale had been the mother of twelve children when she died. Two of her children, named David and Jonathan, were twins. One of the twins, Jonathan, died when only a week old. David lived to be graduated from Yale and to become a minister at Lisbon, Connecticut. A little daughter, Susanna, lived but a month, but ten of Mrs. Hale's twelve children grew to maturity.

Nathan, the sixth child, born June 6, 1755, was the first of the ten to die, leaving to his surviving brothers and sisters a memory that in later years must have been an unfailing inspiration. He was delicate at first, but owing to his mother's care he later became as robust in body as he was in mind. For an older brother, Enoch, the plan was formed of sending him to college to prepare for the ministry, a custom then prevalent among many of the large and prosperous families in New England. Nathan was at first destined for a business life; but because of the urgent desire of his mother, heartily seconded by that of his Grandmother Strong, he was allowed to enter college with his brother Enoch in 1769, when he was fourteen years old; this was two years after the death of his mother. Four of Mrs. Hale's immediate relatives were graduates of Yale,--a fine ill.u.s.tration of the value those progressive pioneers attached to education.

As a boy Nathan was to his mother what he later became to all who knew him; and the bond between such a mother and such a son must have been very tender and strong. It is a comfort to those who know what such mothers desire for their children, to remember the gladness and hope with which this mother, overworked and dying long before her time, looked forward to the days coming to her children. For Nathan, through her influence, was to become one of Yale's n.o.blest sons.

As Nathan's mother died nine years before he did, we understand the full meaning of the line in Judge Finch's poem,

"The sad of Earth, the glad of Heaven,"

written many years later in honoring Nathan's splendid sacrifice. The poem to which the line belongs, read more than sixty years ago on the one-hundredth anniversary of the Linonian Society, an organization of Yale College of which Nathan Hale had been an early and an active member, had much influence in rousing first Yale men, and then other patriotic Americans, to recognize Nathan Hale as one of America's bravest martyrs.

Mrs. Hale died in 1767. About two years later Deacon Hale married again, bringing to his home this time a widow, Mrs. Abigail Adams, of Canterbury, who must have been well fitted to take her place as the new head of the family. No ign.o.ble mother could rear such children as she had reared, and Deacon Hale's second choice of a wife proved a wise and happy one. Providence appears to have smiled upon him when he opened his doors and invited Mrs. Adams and her children to share his home, and even the affection of some of his sons. It is said that two of Deacon Hale's sons fell in love with her youngest daughter, Alice Adams, who, at Deacon Hale's desire, came to live permanently in the family in 1770 or 1771, while his second son, John, married her eldest daughter, Sarah Adams, on December 19, 1770.

The lives of both these women, Sarah and Alice Adams, are sufficient witnesses to the high character of the new mother added to the Hale household. To several of his biographers it has seemed quite probable that Nathan Hale wrote one of his last two letters to this mother. We grant that it may have been addressed to her, while intended for the reading of another. Of this, later.

In regard to the marriage of John Hale and Sarah Adams it may be as well to state here that, after a married life of thirty-one years, John Hale died suddenly in December, 1802, his health probably undermined by his service in the Revolutionary War, where he held the rank of major. His widow, desiring to carry out what she believed would have been his wishes, "bequeathed 1000 to trustees as a fund, the income of which was to be used for the support of young men preparing for missionary service,"--probably among the Indians, as this was before the support of foreign missions was undertaken in America--"and in part for founding and supporting the Hale Library in Coventry, to be used by the ministers of Coventry and the neighboring towns." Included in the bequest for founding the still existing so-called "Hale Donation" was a portrait of the donor's husband, Major John Hale;--well painted, for the period, and now of great interest. Mrs. John Hale died a few months after her husband. It is easy to believe that, though born of different parents, the Hale and Adams families were congenial mentally and morally, and that Deacon Richard Hale was a wise and fortunate man in his choice of a second mother for his children.

According to his mother's and grandmother's wishes, it was early decided that Nathan should be prepared to enter college. After the fas.h.i.+on of those times, he and two of his brothers began their preparatory studies under the direction of the Rev. Joseph Huntington, D.D., then pastor of the church in Nathan's native town. He is said to have been a man noted for his intellectual power, for his patriotism, and for his courteous manners.

It may be well to say here that, in those early days, the New England ministers usually settled in one pastorate for life, and they were not only teachers in spiritual things, but were noted for their courteous and dignified manners; so that even before he entered college Nathan Hale must have had ample opportunities for the cultivation of the easy manners and courteous deportment which are said by all who knew him to have been so marked in him.

Nathan Hale, as a boy, had one more a.s.set that must have helped to insure his future success, and that did, as we believe, help him to die n.o.bly. He was not overindulged; he had always the spur of effort to urge him forward. It was told of him, many years after his death, by the woman he had loved and who had known him well all his later years, Mrs.

Alice Adams Lawrence, that whatever he did, even as boy, he did with all his heart, as if it engrossed his whole mind. Whether it was work, or study, or play, he gave all his energies to the doing of it. Such a disposition, together with his fine home training, must have helped to insure his success in Yale.

CHAPTER II

COLLEGE DAYS

In September, 1769, accompanied by Enoch, an older brother, Nathan Hale entered the Freshman cla.s.s at Yale. His personal traits easily won the hearts of his cla.s.smates, while his quick understanding, his high scholars.h.i.+p, and his loyalty to the college standards made him as popular among tutors and professors as among his cla.s.smates. It is pleasant to know that, from the time we first learn of him until we see him standing beside the fatal tree, he appears to have won all hearts worth winning.

But Nathan Hale had yet another gift that would surely endear him to college students of to-day as much as it doubtless did to his own cla.s.smates. He was a powerful athlete. So great was his skill in this line that, to successive generations of Yale men, the "broad jump" made by Nathan Hale remained unequaled. It is said to have taken place on what is now called "The Green" in New Haven, not far from the Old State House; and for many years the spot was marked to designate the length of the jump. Even during the years when his courageous death appeared to be well-nigh forgotten, "Hale's jump" was vividly remembered. But he not only "jumped," he excelled in all games then popular in college, besides being a capital shot with his rifle, as well as a fine swimmer.

Hale could, it is said, lay one hand on the top of a six-foot fence and easily vault over it; and, though this astonis.h.i.+ng feat is reported as occurring while he was a teacher, he used to delight his companions by showing them how to stand in a hogshead with his hands on his hips, leap over the first hogshead, land in a second, leap from that into a third, and from that out on to the ground,--all this before he was twenty.

Imagine the delight of the "other fellows" standing around to watch Hale go through his various stunts in athletics! It almost makes one feel as if one had been a student and shared in the cheering when Hale did these things, so easy to himself, so difficult to the onlookers. Then fancy the talk at the supper tables, when the candles burned brightly and the eatables tasted twice as good because "old Hale" had won laurels for "old Yale" that afternoon by some "splendid" deed, as the boys called it. Whatever he did, we may be sure that it was done well and with all his might, and that n.o.body equaled him.

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.

Let us now turn to the record of his years of successful work at Yale.

It has been said that whatever he did, he did with all his might, and his brain work was as notable in its results as were the strength and agility of his body. In those early days the college bell rang for prayers, as the beginning of the day's work, at half past four in summer and an hour later in winter; and there are men still living who remember, in later years and at later hours, the wild rushes half-dressed students used to make, adjusting what they could of their hastily donned clothing on their race to morning chapel.

Hale, however, as well as his companions a hundred and forty years ago, were accustomed to early rising, and able to fill every hour of their long days with work or play. The course of study then was much shorter than it is now, but if lacking in quant.i.ty it certainly made up in some of its qualities. We doubt if Freshmen to-day would outs.h.i.+ne their fellows of that very early time if their declamations on Fridays were required to be in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, "no English being allowed save by special permission."

Science as we now know it had not entered into the college course, but the little then known, and the other studies considered essential, comparatively limited as they must have been, were taught so thoroughly that the men who carried away a college diploma carried a sure guarantee that they had been carefully taught whatever was then considered essential to a college education.

Although it is true that science was then in comparative infancy, it is also true that it was deeply absorbing to young Hale. Some of his most valued books were scientific, and, aside from the studies he was obliged to pursue, he eagerly absorbed educational theories and the best literary works then available. As a college student, he stood high; as a thinker and as one interested in the finest pursuits of his period, he ranked equally high. Before he was nineteen he had won the permanent friends.h.i.+p and ardent admiration of a man who was then his tutor, Timothy Dwight, later the renowned president of Yale College, and to the end of his long life a lover of his boy-friend, Nathan Hale.

Another warm friend, a cla.s.smate, destined to be notable in future years, was James Hillhouse, later United States Senator, the first man to leave the stamp of beauty on his native city, New Haven, in the wonderful elms of his planting.

In addition to these two noted men, many of Hale's warmest friends.h.i.+ps were formed at college among the leading men of his own and of other cla.s.ses. At least two or three of these were his companions in arms, to whom we may refer later. Of his scholars.h.i.+p, one sure test remains. At graduation, of the thirty-six men in his cla.s.s, he ranked among the first thirteen.

In one other important line Nathan Hale made a notable mark in college, namely, in his intense interest in Linonia. This society had been founded in 1753 "to promote in addition to the regular course of academic study, literary stimulus and rhetorical improvement to the undergraduates," and to create friendly relations among its members. The organization lived a long and honorable life, and did a most helpful work among its members. Nathan Hale was the first in his cla.s.s to become its Chancellor, later styled President. He was for some time also its scribe, and many of his entries in the Linonian reports are still "clear throughout and well-preserved" as is his signature at the end, after the pa.s.sing of more than a hundred years.

During his college course his name occurs in the reports of almost every meeting of the society. At one time he delivered "a very interesting narration"; at another, "an eloquent extemporaneous address." On various occasions he is said to have taken part in some of the plays that were frequently acted, and to have proposed questions for discussion.

Besides taking part in the society and college exercises, he enjoyed frequent correspondence with a number of his cla.s.smates on themes of taste and criticism and of grammar and philology.

As incoming Chancellor at the end of the college year of 1772, Hale responded in behalf of Linonia to the parting address from one of the graduating cla.s.s.