USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > New Haven, a book recording the varied activities of the author in his efforts over many years to promote the welfare of the city of his adoption since 1883, together with some researches into its storied past and many illustrations > Part 46
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Strange as it may seem, it is clear that Stuart and the "relatives" whom he consulted (certainly Chauncey Howard and probably his brother, John Ripley Howard), were misled by the use of the word Science in its old broad connotation of knowledge, whereas Stuart took it to mean such subjects as
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were covered by the Dictionary in question-natural philos- ophy, applied physics or whatever !
Thus Stuart says in his "Life of Nathan Hale" (pp. 18-19) :
"And science lured him to her sweet abode" is the language of Dr. Dwight-a fact proved also by the preponderance of books in this depart- ment in Hale's own little library [there is no evidence to show that Hale had even a "little library" of his own; to use the word "library" to describe a mere handful of books is misleading] among which particularly, was a new and complete Dictionary in four large octavo volumes of the Arts and Sciences.
The above quotation shows conclusively, it seems to me, that Stuart and his informants actually predicated Hale's alleged ownership of the four volume Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences listed in John Hale's inventory and attributed to Nathan a particular fondness for "scientific pursuits," upon a misconception of the meaning of the word science in Dwight's tribute to Hale in his famous Epic, the "Conquest of Canaan."
On being shown or told about these books as Hale's, some- thing like seventy-five years after Hale's death, Stuart, I con- ceive, inferred that Hale was peculiarly interested in "scientific pursuits." I daresay that Stuart did not notice John Hale's signature in the third volume, if indeed he ever actually saw the books, which I question. For the rest, for his treatment of the subject of "Hale's own little library," Stuart must have drawn on his fertile imagination, since what few books Hale had ever owned had been scattered in the preceding century and no list of them remained, if there ever had been a list, which may be doubted.
In this same connection I may refer to the use of the word Science in its old sense of knowledge in the long poem in heroic couplets To the Memory of Capt. Nathan Hale (see pp. 400- 405), "wrote soon after Hale's death," as I am satisfied by his friend Dr. Eneas Munson (1734-1826, Yale Coll. 1753) from which I quote four lines :
"And shall Columbia where blest freedom reigns
With gentle sway, to bless her happy plains,-
Where friendship, trust and simple manners shine
And noblest science [Italics mine] lifts her head divine."
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Here again we have the word science used in its old sense of knowledge just as Dwight used it in the line that, it seems to me, led Stuart astray, and Stuart, be it noted, was familiar with the poem last quoted and refers to it in his Life of Nathan Hale (see pp. 153-7).
I conclude, then, that Stuart's attribution of the ownership of the four volume Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences is without any foundation in fact. The weight of evidence is all in favor of its ownership by John Hale, whose signature one volume bears in a small, precise, dry hand.
Johnston did not fall into this error of Stuart's, which, however, it has seemed desirable to refute in attempting to get at Hale through his books, in which he was said at the Linonia Centenary Celebration, as already pointed out, to have "found his zeal and pure devotion to human freedom," but surely not in a "Dictionary of Arts and Sciences."
Another book which we can safely place in Hale's hands is in the possession of a descendant of Hale's sister Elizabeth (1752-1813). This is a small pamphlet of sixteen pages, entitled :
Rules and Articles for the Better Government of the Troops Raised, or to be raised and kept in pay by and at the joint EXPENCE of the Thirteen United English Colonies of North America Philadelphia: Printed by Wil- liam and Thomas Bradford-1775.
On the front cover appears in what I judge to be Hale's handwriting :
May ye 27th Day 1776 Camp at New York Capt. Nathan Hails Book.
Directly below the above inscription and also in what may be, and doubtless is, Hale's handwriting in a smaller script and apparently with a different quill and blacker ink, is the line:
Camp at New York
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On the back of the cover in a bolder flourishy script appears the line :
Nathan Hails.
This little book was found among the papers of the present owner's grandfather, Nathan Hale Rose (1776-1838) who lived in Coventry on the homestead of his great uncle, Major John Hale. The book therefore comes from the proper cus- tody and the endorsements upon it appear to me to be in Hale's own handwriting. Moreover, it is just the kind of a book Hale would have had and used as an officer in the Con- tinental Army. What is puzzling beyond all explanation is the spelling of the surname "Hails"-a humorous fantasy, seemingly unlike our serious Captain, but there it is clear enough, explain it who will. Hales, however, is an English variant of the family name, and it may be that Nathan was playing upon it.
We can also place in Hale's hand still another book, a book which he used as a school-teacher. Marvin who wants to bor- row it for a few days writes from "Norwich, April 8, 1774," to Hale who is teaching in New London, "you mentioned to me a grammar which you have by you-if I mistake not the British Instructor [Italics mine] but whether I have the Name right or not if you can spare it for a few days as well as not, & will send it up [from New London] by Capt. Waterman today-I shall be obliged to you-I believe I need not tell you I will be careful of it . " (See Johnston, pp. 201-2.)
The "Saturday Review of Literature" of March 12, 1927, notes the sale at auction by Charles F. Heartman at Metuchen, N. J., on February 22, 1927, of several items including "Wes- ton's Stenography Compleated, or the Art of Shorthand Brought to Perfection, 12 mo., original calf, London 1727. Nathan Hale's copy with his signature and record of Purchase in his own handwriting." The book sold for $1,550. I have not seen the book but it is the sort of book a practical, cleri- cally minded person and diarist like Hale would have owned.
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A correspondent writing me in 1915 calls my attention to a letter of Mr. L. claiming to have a copy of Virgil containing Hale's autograph. This bit I have never been able to verify but leave the nut for some other antiquarian to crack.
I am impelled to say in this connection that several books containing the autograph of Nathan Hale (1742-1813, Yale Coll. 1769), a native of Longmeadow, Mass., have misled col- lectors and led to serious confusion and paved the way, no doubt, to deception, since the autographs of the two Hales are superficially not unlike. Johnston in the first edition of his "Nathan Hale 1776" wrongly ascribed copies of David For- dyce's "Theodorus-a dialogue on the Art of Preaching" and Dr. Peter Van Mastricht's "Treatise on Regeneration" to Hale's ownership. Convinced of his error these two titles were with- drawn from his second edition, in which he admitted his mis- take (p. 171). Two other books (it would be invidious to describe and place them) fall in the same class and certainly belonged to Nathan of Longmeadow, who studied divinity. Hence the character of these four books, all of which are theological. Collectors will do well to bear this in mind when offered books alleged to contain the signature of the Patriot, one of the rarest that any collector of Americana can hope to secure.
Since it is clear that the writer of the long poem "To the Memory of Capt. Nathan Hale" already referred to in this article and reprinted (for the first time in full) in this book, was written soon after Hale's death by someone who knew him well, I do not hesitate to quote from it in concluding this phase of my subject, as showing Hale as an omnivorous reader, particularly of classical books-
"His teachers precepts he obeyed with ease, The charms of science every hour could please ;
Then he with rapture [Italics mine] read those polished lines, Where Grecian wit and Roman genius shines,- Where the great worthies of the former age Live in the poet's and historian's page, .. . "
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Hale's Watch Referred to by Alden as his "Memento"-What became of it? A warning to Collectors of Haleana!
Alden's use in the letter quoted of the term "Memento" to describe Hale's watch suggests that it was a gift to him of some special significance-now as lost as the watch itself. Was this the watch Hale had "fixed" in January, 1776, by Thomas Harland of Norwich as recorded in his diary? He seems to have had some particular sentiment about his watch, which he kept by him when he entered the enemy's lines, according to Deacon Gilbert's letter of May 7th, 1836, to Bradley. That may have been the very "Memento" referred to by Alden. The "little anecdote" about Hale and his watch recorded by Gilbert must have originated with Stephen Hemp- stead (1754-1831) who accompanied Hale as far as Hunting- ton, L. I., where Hale after changing his dress entered the enemy's lines. (See Hempstead's Capture and Execution of Capt. Hale in 1776. Johnston pp. 154-7.) Collectors of Haleana may well be wary when offered Hale's(?) watch which doubtless fell into the hands of his executioner, the brutal Irish Provost Marshal William Cunningham.
Dwight's Tribute to Hale.
Of all the strictly contemporary prose tributes to Hale, that of Dwight in his letter to him of February 20, 1776, is the most striking (see Johnston, pp. 217-218, for the full text of the letter). At this time, Hale (then a first Lieutenant) was participating in the Siege of Boston. Nevertheless, Dwight turned to him in an appeal, however untimely, to secure sub- scriptions looking forward to the publication of his once- celebrated but now forgotten epic, "The Conquest of Canaan." Says Dwight :
To a person of Mr. Hale's character (motive of friendship apart) fondness for the liberal arts [Italics mine] would be a sufficient apology for this application.
To be sure, the letter is couched in the laudatory language of one asking a favor, but after making due allowance for that
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A LETTER FROM HILLHOUSE TO HALE
view of it, it remains a fine tribute to Hale from Dwight, already one of the "brightest stars" in the Yale firmament and destined to be Yale's greatest president and one of the foremost figures of his generation. His reference to Hale's "fondness for the liberal arts" can, I think, have but one meaning, i.e., fondness for books. The phrase, "liberal arts," connoted little if anything more in those far-off days. Dwight, of the Class of 1769, graduated just as Hale matriculated, but Dwight remained in New Haven and in September, 1771, accepted a tutorship. However it came about, he became a great admirer of the "young scholar of Coventry," to use Dr. Bushnell's happy characterization of Hale again. For one thing, they were fellow-members of Linonia and that was as strong a bond then as the bond that binds "Bones" men and "Keys" men to-day and even more partisan. Stuart says :
Dr. Dwight, his tutor, entertained a very high idea of his [Hale's] capacity. He has beautifully eulogized him in verse [his tribute in "The Conquest of Canaan"]. He was wonted, to the close of his life, frequently to refer to him and always in terms of admiration of his course in college and of deep regret for his untimely fate (Stuart, p. 18).
Considering Dwight's position in the world and his char- acter and judgment of men and things, his tributes to Hale are the most significant that have come down to our day.
Now Dwight was not one to keep his talents "hid under a bushel," and I dare say that Hale knew about Dwight's epic when in college and did what he could to get subscriptions for it "among those Gentlemen & Ladies of the circle with which you are connected whom you think likely to honor the poem with their encouragement." I have always felt that it was Dwight's desire posthumously to pay Hale for his good offices about printing the poem that led him to inject his famous tribute to Hale when he finally published the poem in 1785. If "Dwight's Homeric fire" is not discernible to this generation, it was so patent to his generation that it earned him the title of the "Father of our Epic Song." His great epic (dedicated to Washington) is now a mere "literary
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curiosity" and all that has saved it from complete oblivion is his tribute to Hale, which displays warmth and genuine feel- ing, and so finely visualizes Hale that I am constrained to give it here, to be read in conjunction with what else I have adduced about their friendship. "Science" is used in the fourth line, be it remembered, in its old sense of knowledge.
Thus, while fond Virtue wished in vain to save, Hale, bright and generous, found a hapless grave ; With Genius' living flame his bosom glowed, And Science lured him to her sweet abode ; In Worth's fair path his feet adventured far, The pride of Peace, the rising hope of War ; In duty firm, in danger calm as even- To friends unchanging, and sincere to Heaven. How short his course, the prize how early won, While weeping Friendship mourns her favorite gone.
Evidence Showing that Hale's Famous "Last Words" Were a Part of an Earnest Speech at the Gallows
According to the Centenary Catalogue of Graduated Mem- bers of Linonia (pub. 1853), the objects of the Society were :
To furnish the students of Yale College with incitements to literary exer- tion aside from the regular course of academic study, to provide the means of improvement in Rhetoric and Oratory, to give frequent opportunities for the exercise of these arts . . .
We may doubt if the young men of Hale's time perceived their splendid raison d'être so clearly as all that or realized how beholden they were to "incitements to literary exertion." That such incitements to Rhetoric and Oratory were present the minutes bear ample witness. Hale seems to have been on his feet talking and orating at almost every meeting. I even sus- pect that he was absent from many of the meetings the minutes of which assign him no part. I find it difficult to envisage Hale save on his feet with something to say !!
From his activity as a speechmaker at so many of these Linonia meetings, I am satisfied that his famous last words crowned an earnest and even impassioned speech. The general
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A LETTER FROM HILLHOUSE TO HALE
impression is, I think, and it was once my own impression, that alone and unfriended on the gibbet, he said with simple dignity, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
In a way I would fain cherish that old picture, did not the evidence at hand compel me to surrender it. It must be borne in mind that the Linonia meetings provided him with opportun- ities for speech-making and it stands to reason that he would not have been so constantly on his feet as the minutes show him to have been unless he thoroughly enjoyed the practice -and doubtless the applause. The very fact that he was chosen by his classmates in Linonia to give the valedictory oration for the Class of 1773 in answer to the valedictory ora- tion by Billings of the Class of 1772 at the anniversary exer- cises of Linonia in 1772, is persuasive evidence that he was the best speaker among the 1773 men in the Linonia membership. The text of Hale's oration (see Johnston, pp. 184-6) on that occasion is in nowise remarkable. It partakes of the laudatory character of all such sophomoric effusions, but it is hearty and manly and has the fluency of one who has had much enjoyable experience of the sort. The speech could have been much compressed without the loss of anything but oratory. It is frankly sentimental; there is nothing at all "high-brow" about it. Whatever may be said of it, it is the only text we have of any of Hale's speeches and shows that he was quite at home on his feet. It prepares us for the record that at the anniversary exercises (they lasted all day) the fol- lowing year, "An Epilogue made expressly on the occasion & delivered by Hale 2ª was received with approbation [Italics mine]." Hale was a member of a committee of three "chosen to superintend the Affairs of the Anniversary," which were the most elaborate in Linonia's history, and he must have had his hands full, but still found time to prepare an epilogue "expressly for the occasion." It is pleasing to read that his effort "was received with approbation." This was the year of his graduation from Yale-1773.
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In the breezy letter written to Hale from New Haven by Richard Sill (1755-1790, Yale Coll. 1775), he obviously cracks Hale on his speech-making proclivities by saying, "I can't hear Sir that you are about mounting the desk,"-a capital movie-picture of Hale, I fancy, by one who knew him well enough in college to twit him good-humoredly a bit on what appears to me to have been a favorite rôle (see pp. 459-461). Hale spoke well and the young like to do what they fancy they do conspicuously well. Sill certainly would not have twitted Hale in this fashion about "mounting the desk" unless he was well aware of Hale's penchant for doing it.
When teaching in New London, on the arrival of an express (i.e., messenger) with the thrilling news of Lexington (April 19, 1775), a hurried town-meeting was called to meet the emergency. This meeting provided the young school teacher with his opportunity and he rose to the occasion :
Capt [Richard] Law states that he was very young at that time, but partaking of the general excitement, on the arrival of the express [i.e. messenger ] accompanied his father (the judge) [Judge Richard Law, 1736- 1806, Yale Coll. 1751] to the meeting when struck by the noble demeanor of Hale and the emphasis with which he addressed the assembly [Italics mine], he enquired of his father what it meant [See letter dated Jan. 17, 1837, of Hon. Leverett Saltonstall to Cyrus P. Bradley in the "Hale Papers"].
This gives us just a glimpse of the fair-haired Hale of "noble demeanor" speaking to that hastily-gathered group of New London citizens, stirred by the news of Lexington, and recalls the poem written, as I feel sure, by Dr. Munson who resented the neglect of Hale's memory "in the house of his friends":
Erect & tall his well proportioned frame, Vig'rous and active as electric flame ; His manly limbs had symmetry & grace, And innate goodness marked his beauteous face ; His fancy lively & his genius great His solid judgment shone in grave debate [Italics mine].
All this prepares us for the account of Hale's capture and
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death in the Essex Journal (Massachusetts) of February 13, 1777, which states that :
At the gallows he [Hale] made a sensible & spirited speech [Italics mine] ; among other things [Italics mine] told them they were shedding innocent blood and that if he had ten thousand lives he would lay them all down if called to it, in defense of his injured bleeding Country [Johnston, pp. 164-5].
The sensational character of this account, and nothing could be more sensational than the matter treated of, has caused its statement that at the gallows he (Hale) made "a sensible & spirited speech" [Italics mine] to be overlooked, or at least never connected with his impressive Lexington Alarm speech at New London and the record of his constant undergraduate speech-making in the meetings of the Linonia fraternity.
Enoch Hale's diary entry of October 26, 1776, states :
When at the Gallows he [Hale] spoke and told that he was a Capt in the Contl [Continental] Army by name Nathan Hale [Johnston, pp. 131-132].
This wording certainly connotes much more in the way of a speech than his now immortal Last Words. Enoch, be it remembered, had exceptional opportunities for securing the details of his brother Nathan's execution when he went to camp in October, 1776, to gather what information he could concerning his brother's fate.
The elegiac poem "wrote soon after Hale's death," by Dr. Eneas Munson but not published until 1836 (see pp. 400-5 of this book), attributes a long speech to him and just such a speech as his character would lead us to expect of him. The poem, be it noted, moreover bears abundant internal evi- dence that the writer knew Hale intimately and it is reasonable to suppose that when the poem was written, the writer was in possession of first-hand information never committed to writing and lost in the long period during which Hale's memory was neglected. Despite some mistakes of fact, I think the poem must be accorded high evidential value. Capt. William Hull (1753-1825, Yale Coll. 1772) transmitted to posterity Hale's last words as communicated to him by Montresor,
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whose brief statement (to be found in Revolutionary Services & Civil Life of General Hull, p. 38) certainly does not exclude the thought of a speech leading up to and crowned by Hale's Last Words derived, as I am satisfied, from Addison's "Cato" (see pp. 346-7).
It seems clear to me, then, that given Hale's training as a speechmaker in Linonia, and the record of his impassioned speech in New London on the arrival of the messenger bringing the news of Lexington, the statement in the Essex Journal article that at the gallows he made "a sensible & spirited speech," the notation by his brother Enoch in his diary that he spoke at the gallows, and the other pieces of evidence referred to, we are warranted in the belief that Hale, with courage and noble demeanor, defended his country in a high strain of patriotism before speaking his famous last words, now a national legacy.
"Liberty is Our Reigning Topic" (Hillhouse)
And now, at the end of these many and even "far flung" digressions, we come back with pleasure to Hillhouse's letter to Hale, which closes with that fine burst of patriotism :
Liberty is our reigning Topic, which loudly calls upon every one to Exert his Tallants & abilities to the utmost in defending of it-now is the time for heroes-now is the time for great men to immortalize their names in the deliverance of their Country, and grace the annals of America with their Glorious Deeds.
Sophomoric you say, but I have no idea other than that Hale was thrilled by his classmate's patriotic sentiments and admired his language as well as his courage, for Hillhouse was in the vanguard in 1774, and also when he took a gallant part in the defense of New Haven in 1779, at the time of Tryon's invasion. He lived to do more for New Haven than any one man ever did, so it is often said, and yet he has no adequate memorial at Yale, which he served so generously and so wisely for half a century and none in New Haven, to which he gave the devotion of a lifetime.
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A LETTER FROM HILLHOUSE TO HALE
"You are now living in my Native Country," says Hillhouse in his letter to Hale, referring to his nativity in Montville, where his father, the Hon. William Hillhouse, was still living, Montville forming the second ecclesiastical parish of New Lon- don. Alden, to whom he refers as "engaged in the same busi- ness [i.e. teaching school] as yourself," was Roger Alden, a classmate and another Linonian, several times referred to in the Linonia minutes. Alden, then teaching in New Haven, was destined to have a long and honorable career as a soldier and public servant, dying at West Point. Hillhouse's ironical reference to John Palsgrave Wyllys (1729-1790), another classmate and correspondent of Hale's, is beyond interpreta- tion now. "Wyllys is the man of Pleasure," writes Hillhouse to Hale, who doubtless understood just what was meant, "and applys himself intirily to the acquirement of knowledge, for which you know he has an Insatiable Thirst." This cannot be wholly ironical, since Wyllys was the salutatorian of their college class. Little did Hillhouse think that Wyllys was to be killed obscurely in an Indian ambuscade near the Miami River in Ohio in 1790. Wyllys, the "beau sabreur" of the Class of 1773, chose to enlist in the regular army, and perished as stated. He belonged to one of the oldest and proudest families in the Connecticut Colony and socially, perhaps, was the ranking man in his college class.
He was born in Hartford, where his forbears had lived for generations, in the famous Wyllys mansion, built for his ancestor, George Wyllys, Esq. (1570-1645) of Fenny Comp- ton in Warwickshire, afterwards governor of the Connecticut Colony, who sent his steward and twenty domestics and inden- tured servants on before him so that on his arrival in Hartford in 1638 a dwelling suitable to his "place in the sun" should be ready for his honorable occupancy. Stuart was to write his "Life of Hale" in it as remodeled in the middle of the last century. The historic Charter Oak stood in front of the house until it "fell before the blast" in 1856.
To return once more to Hillhouse, I have long cherished the
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hope that in some venerable trunk or other repository in the capacious garret of the Hillhouse mansion in which he died in Sachem's Wood, Hale's letters to him might be found. But all search has proved unavailing. Beyond family letters, the papers of Hillhouse seem to have long since disappeared.
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