Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/23

NATHAN HALE 213 Commencement Day took what is called a part, which shows that he was among the thirteen scholars of highest rank in his class. From the record of the college society to which he belonged, it appears that he was interested in their theatrical performances. These were not discouraged by the college government, and made a recognized part of the amusements of the college and the town. Many of the lighter plays brought forward on the Eng- lish stage were thus produced by the pupils of Yale College for the entertain- ment of the people of New Haven. When he graduated, at the age of eighteen, he probably intended at some time to become a Christian minister, as his brother Enoch did. But, as was almost a custom of the time, he began his active life as a teacher in the public schools, and early in 1774 accepted an appointment as the teacher of the Union Grammar School, a school maintained by the gentlemen of New London, Conn., for the higher education of their children. Of thirty-two pupils, he says, " ten are Latiners and all but one of the rest are writers." In his commencement address Hale had considered the question whether the higher education of women were not neglected. And, in the arrangement of the Union School at New London, it was determined that between the hours of five and seven in the morning, he should teach a class of "twenty young ladies " in the studies which occupied their brothers at a later hour. He was thus engaged in the year 1774. The whole country was alive with the movements and discussions which came to a crisis in the battle of Lexington the next year. Hale, though not of age, was enrolled in the militia and was ac- tive in the military organization of the town. So soon as the news of Lexington and Concord reached New London, a town-meeting was called. At this meeting, this young man, not yet of age, was one of the speakers. " Let us march immediately," he said, " and never lay down our arms until we obtain our independence." He assembled his school as usual the next day, but only to take leave of his scholars. " He gave them earnest counsel, prayed with them, shook each by the hand," and bade them farewell. It is said that there is no other record so early as this in which the word " in- dependence " was publicly spoken. It would seem as if the uncalculating cour- age of a boy of twenty were needed to break the spell which still gave dignity to colonial submission. He was commissioned as First Lieutenant in the Seventh Connecticut regi- ment, and resigned his place as teacher. The first duty assigned to the regiment was in the neighborhood of New London, where, probably, they were perfecting their discipline. On September 14, 1775, they were ordered by Washington to Cambridge. There they were placed on the left wing of his army, and made their camp at the foot of Winter Hill. This was the post which commanded the passage from Charlestown, one of the only two roads by which the English could march out from Boston. Here they remained until the next spring. Hale him- self gives the most interesting details of that great victory by which Washington and his officers changed that force of minute-men, by which they had overawed