E

For some time after the death of Nathan Hale a report was circulated,
and apparently substantiated, that he had been betrayed into the hands
of the British by a Tory cousin. Ultimately this report was printed in a
Newburyport (Massachusetts) newspaper of the day, and read by Mr. Samuel
Hale of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This Mr. Hale was a prominent teacher
and a strong friend of the American cause, and uncle both to Nathan Hale
and to Samuel Hale, the cousin who was said to have betrayed Nathan.

Mr. Samuel Hale never for a moment believed the report, and set himself
at once to disprove it. This appears to have been done in the most
effectual way by the combined efforts of Mr. Samuel Hale and Deacon
Hale, who furnished proof that the supposed betrayer of Nathan Hale had
never visited in Deacon Hale's family, and, not being in his uncle's
house when Nathan visited there, had never so much as seen Nathan Hale.

There were, of course, at the time, strong animosities existing between
those who supported the British cause among the Americans, and the
Americans who were opposing England. As at all such times, some members
of each party were not only unjust but cruel to the other party; and in
some respects this nephew of the teacher, Samuel Hale, and asserted
betrayer of Nathan, paid very heavily for his loyalty to the English
cause. We will let him tell his own story, only adding that when
hostilities broke out he was a young and successful barrister practicing
in Portsmouth, was married, and had one child.

Unswerving in his loyalty to the English cause, he was soon obliged to
leave New Hampshire, and eventually to go into English territory. He
wrote to his uncle Samuel, in whose family he had been reared, and later
to his wife; neither letter is dated, but it is probable that when the
latter was written he was in Nova Scotia. His letter to his uncle runs
in part as follows:

"My affections as well as my allegiance are due to another nation. I
love the British government with filial fondness. I have never been
actuated by any political rancor towards the Americans. My conduct has
always been fair, explicit, and open, and I may add, _some of your
people have found it humane_ at a time when affairs on our side wore
the most flattering appearances. My veneration is as high, my friendship
as warm, and my attachment as great as ever it was for many characters
among you, though I have differed much from them in politics