American patriot Nathan Hale, facing a British noose, declared that he regretted having but one life to lose for his country. Thing is, no one actually wrote that down.
Hale, a 21-year-old Yale graduate and former schoolteacher, had volunteered to spy behind British lines around New York. According to the American Revolution Institute, he was caught in civilian clothes carrying incriminating papers — and his own Yale diploma — and was hanged on the morning of September 22, 1776, 250 years ago this month, near what is now 66th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan.
The celebrated line survives secondhand. William Hull, published the quotation years later, though he never heard it himself.
The words may be borrowed as well as remembered. They closely echo a passage from Joseph Addison’s popular play “Cato”: what pity is it that we can die but once to serve our country.
Briefs and quick reads selected and edited by The Smart Reader’s editorial team.
