Larry Mendte Curtis Sliwa America 250th June 9

Curtis & Larry talk about patriot Nathan Hale and his bravery as a spy during the Revolutionary War.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Curtis and Larry celebrate two fifty stories that made America
on seventen woo and they're in honor of a patriot
who came from Connecticut. They'd been going to Yale University
with his fellow classmates. Wanted to go to Boston to
fight the Brits, but knew that George Washington was BIBO

(00:25):
whacked down on Manhattan awaiting the British invasion of General Howell.
So he and his friends from Yale University went down
to Manhattan to meet with George Washington. They were I
guess the predecessor the Scull and Bones, you know, the
secret society there, and they became the first US intelligence service.

(00:47):
They were called Knowlton's Rangers. And it was Nathan Hale,
who is now a state hero in Connecticut, who volunteered
to go undercover dressed as a teacher behind British lines
to find out as much intel as possible for Judge Washington,

(01:08):
who knew the Brits were coming. So Nathan Hale very
bravely went out there, knowing that spying was punishable by hanging.
The Crown had let everybody know you spy. There are
no rules of engagement. Now that you are a prisoner
of war, you get hung. There's no due process. You
don't go before a judge. No, we find the nearest

(01:30):
tree and we hang you. You know all of that.
And so he goes behind enemy lines and he's acting
as if he's a Dutch teacher. He's doing a great job.
And then the treachery comes from within his own DNA
A trail. Samuel Hale, a cousin, a loyalist to the crown,

(01:51):
rats him out. The Brits find out where he is,
they grab him and they bring him to General Howard
himself was now headquartered ready to move in on Judge
Washington and the Continental Army in Manhattan, Lower Manhattan. He's
at fiftieth Street and fifty first Street between First and

(02:13):
Second Avenue, and so how interrogates them. He's the first
spy in this war. And they find evidence on Nathan Hale,
and he's asked just one thing. He knows what the
penalty is, you know, death by hanging. He knows what's
going to happen the next morning. He asks for a Bible,
they say no. He asks for clergy, they say no.

(02:35):
And then on the morning of September twenty second of
seventeen seventy six, right where East sixty sixth Street and
Third Avenue is in front of the Dove Tavern. They
enabled him to write two letters before they were going
to hang them. He could see the gallows, he could
see the executioner, one to his mom, one to his brother.

(02:57):
And believe it or not, there was a crowd there,
obviously of loyalists, because Manhattan was a loyalty area to
the Crown, as most were in the other five boroughs.
And that's when he said, as they fashion the noose
around his neck, I only regret that I have but
one life to lose for my country. And then General Howe,

(03:21):
after taking a little bit of snuff up his nose,
hang the trader and he was swinging there. Now, if
you go to City Hall Park, unless you look closely
as you walk out of City Hall, you are not
going to see Nathan Hale. There's a beautiful staturee in
his memory. If you go to the Yale Club right

(03:44):
in Grand Central Station, they have a plaque there in
his honor. Because of his sacrifice. The body was never
ever found, but there is a last place of resting
without a casket in Connecticut. Well, remember he's a Connecticut boy.
He's a hero there in Connecticut. We barely talk about him.

(04:06):
In New York and New York City he was hung
here if you go into the city council chambers. Now
they dragged out Thomas Jefferson the statue years ago when
Comrade builled de Blasio, the part time mayor of the
dope from Park Slope, who was too busy smoking Maui Wowie,
a Hindu cushy at night on the back portrait Gracie Mansion,
he ordered it the Thomas Jefferson statue be dragged out,

(04:29):
never to be in there again. They have a huge
portrait of General Lafayette. Thank god, the French helped us
and sent us General Lafayete a huge portrait. In fact,
the bidding on that portrait is enormous. And you know
who painted that, The inventor of the telegraph, Samuel Finley
Morse the Morris Code as in eighteen twenty six. So

(04:52):
imagine the Frenchman who helped us is up there. But
Thomas Jefferson was dragged out a statue never to be
seen again because they said, oh, he had slaves meantime,
all of these city council people and everybody at city
Hall walks out. Do you think any of them see
that statue of Nathan Hale, There was the first buy

(05:15):
in the American Revolution who gave up his life at
the age of twenty one. He was a captain in
the Continental Army. That's how young they were, who said,
I only regret that I have but one life to
lose from my country, and then they hung them by
the neck. When you look at that's very good, that's excellent.
When you look at that statue of Hale, I mean

(05:38):
he looks like a model, he said, just a very
handsome young man. And it's all fake. Nobody knew what
he looked like. Nobody knew what he looked like. It
is the twentieth century sculpture of Bella Lion Pratt, who
admitted that, and she just said, look, this is the
way I imagine him. And it's but as you pointed out,

(06:00):
it's perfect.