“I regret that I have but one life to live for my country.”
When I was in grade school, the extent of my knowledge about Nathan Hale was limited to just three things. That he was captured by the British during the American Revolution, that he was hanged, and the words above were the last he spoke before the hangman’s noose did its deadly work.
I’m quite a bit older, and I still don’t know much about the man. But I don’t think I’m the exception. Nathan Hale died at just 21 years of age, and lived in a time when record-keeping was nothing like it is now. So information is sparse, and what we have is sketchy. There are no portraits of Hale, so we really don’t know what he looked like. The statues formed in his honor?…they’re pretty much artist interpretations of what his appearance may have been. His famous last words…the ones that made him famous that I learned at an early age?…people don’t actually know if he said them.
So what do we know?
Nathan Hale was a Captain in the Continental Army, and as the British worked to capture New York City in 1776, the 21-year-old volunteered to go behind British lines and spy on their movements. That was early September. And as we know, General Washington and the Continental Army were forced to leave and as they did, a fire broke out that burned a quarter of the city.
It was never determined if the fire was an act of nature, or an accident, or if it was deliberately set. But the British believed that it was the work of rebel activity, and rounded up a couple hundred potential suspects. One of them was Hale.
And apparently, it didn’t take them long to figure out he was a spy. And if we recall the case of Major John André, the penalty for spying was death. But unlike André, there was almost no delay in carrying out Hale’s sentence. On September 22, 1776 (just one day after the fire and his arrest), Nathan Hale was hanged.
It’s pretty clear that the young man made some kind of statement before the deed was done. And several accounts have him saying something at least close to the quote we all know. But those may not be his exact words, however much they’ve been immortalized. Still, Hale seems to have been a daring young man. And he was certainly willing to risk the one life he could live in the service of his country.
So whether or not the statement is 100% correct, it is appropriate, because there are few deeds more noble than that.
