Free Republic

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" were the last words of 21-year-old American patriot Nathan Hale, who was hanged by the British without a trial on SEPTEMBER 22, 1776. A Yale graduate, 1773, Nathan Hale almost became a Christian minister, as his brother Enoch did, but instead became a teacher at Union Grammar School. When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, Nathan Hale joined a Connecticut militia and served in the siege of Boston. On July 4, 1775, Hale received a letter from his Yale classmate, Benjamin Tallmadge, who became General Washington's...

At first glance, he doesn’t seem to have much in common with 21st-century New Yorkers. He was one of 12 children born to farmers in Connecticut. He was fluent in Greek and Latin by age 14, when he enrolled at Yale. He graduated to teach school, including a class for girls that met at dawn. When revolution broke out two years later, he enlisted with the rebels. He was hanged for espionage 235 years ago today, near what’s now 66th Street and Third Avenue, when the British Army caught him spying on its plans to invade Manhattan. He was 21....

COVENTRY -- An anonymous tip has led Coventry police to the whereabouts of a stolen statue of Nathan Hale at Diana's Pool in Chaplin. The 3-foot-high bronze cast of the Revolutionary War hero and Coventry native son was in good condition, Police Chief Mark Palmer said this morning. The investigation is continuing. The statue was reported missing April 4 from the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry. It had been sawed off or broken off at the ankles.

A Google News search for terrorist, rules and trials turned up 353 articles on the regulations just established for the trials of terrorists by military tribunals. The leading articles were by the New York Times and the BBC. Interestingly, none of them mentioned Nathan Hale. The articles get in a high dudgeon because terrorists can be tried “based on hearsay,” and might be “executed.” Most importantly, all of these writers and editors act as if this were a brand-new phenomenon. Apparently both history education and books are in short supply in the mainstream media. Let’s review. Nathan Hale was hanged...

The City of New York will pay tribute to Peter Jennings today when the street where ABC News headquarters is located is renamed in his honor. It is a permanent geographical memorial to the man who left such an indelible mark on the landscape of American journalism. West 66th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue in New York City's Upper West Side will be dubbed "Peter Jennings Way." The Jennings family, ABC News President David Westin, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and many of Jennings' former colleagues will attend the naming ceremony. Jennings lived close to his office...

I first wrote about the Gitmo prison, four years ago. I laid out facts the MSM have yet to discover. Here’s another dose: 1. If Gitmo is closed, the prisoners, AND the complaints, will go elsewhere. (Is Senator Mel Martinez really that clueless?) 2. The Geneva Conventions do NOT apply to anyone captured in plain clothes, behind the lines, hiding among civilians (and also killing civilians). Anyone can read the Geneva Conventions for themselves. Fighters/soldiers must meet four conditions to be covered. Terrorists fail to meet at least three of those. These are not “insurgents.” Insurgents are people who disagree...

Massive send-off rally to support the Fort Trumbull eminent domain victims in their 5-year quest for justice before the U.S. Supreme Court next week. See link for details.

The New York *Slimes Trashes Nathan Hale By Arne Steinberg October 10, 2003 The trashing of American heroes is one of the basic procedures of the hate-America crowd in the U.S. media. This media strategy of belittling heroic figures in American history is a noticeable part of the agenda to dismantle and undermine the heritage on which the U.S. is built. The media campaign to tear down Thomas Jefferson, by smearing him as one who had sexual relations with a mulatto slave, comes to mind as an example. (The rest is below)

A manuscript given to the Library of Congress may solve a mystery as old as the American Revolution: how the British caught and executed Nathan Hale for spying. It turns out that Hale, considered by the Central Intelligence Agency to be the first American executed for spying for his country, probably made some monumentally naïve mistakes, chief among them trusting a stranger with the secret of his mission. Those blunders could have led to his hanging 227 years ago this Monday. Details of Hale's capture had eluded historians, but library officials have new information from the manuscript, written during or...

Dear Lord, There's a young man far from home, called to serve his nation in time of war; sent to defend our freedom on some distant foreign shore. We pray You keep him safe, we pray You keep him strong, we pray You send him safely home ... for he's been away so long. There's a young woman far from home, serving her nation with pride. Her step is strong, her step is sure, there is courage in every stride. We pray You keep her safe, we pray You keep her strong, we pray You send her safely home...