The Press., 1883-04-12
NATHAN HALE.

An
 The following is portion of the recent address at the state capital, by Ex- Govern or Hubbard, in favor of placing over the east capital entrance memorial statute of Capt. Nathan Hale, the revolutionary mar tyr:
 To say that Nathan Hale was martyr to his country's cause Is to say much, but not all, very far from it.
 Unlike most others, this martyrdom of Hale's had this distinguishing excel lence, that it was essentially voluntary one. Not all to be sure, but most of the great sacrifices in the worlds military an- nals were acts of military obedience-glori ous as such, grant-but still acts of obe- dience to superior will that had power to compel obedience. The three hundred, for example, who fell at Thermoply@ fell, as their monuments still tell, "in obedience to the laws" s"-laws that put to instant death the soldier who turned to flight in the face of an enemy. The six hundreds who rode into "the jaws of hell'' at Balaklava, rode under orders that it would have been dis honor and death to disobey, even when the orders were 8 blunder. All these, and many others whom it were long to name, have made themselves immortal in all time by the glory of heroic obedience. But observe, I pray you, that Hales sacrifice had in it no element whatever of obedi- ence for his undertaking was above all the ranges of law, civil or military. It was peril on which no being might be sent by any human authority for who goes upon such peril goes upon more than forlorn hope, and he who comes not back dies death of unspeakable shame and ignominy.
 Abraham Lincoln has passed into history with an unparalleled glory of martyrdom. Far be it from me to dim its luster. But let us not forget to discriminate Lin coln's sacrifices occurred ill 8 service which involved the highest rewards of human ambition, and, so far as could be foreseen, nothing whatever of human peril. Hale, on the other hand, undertook service which was full of foreseen peril from the beginning, which promised success only as hope, but chains, attainder and the glib bet as probability. Are there red crowns of martyrdom in the worlds history for the one, and for the other nothing but cheap and faded recollection in his native state
 Let me suggest another thought. This sacrifice of Hale's, though voluntary, as have already said, was not an ungoverned, impulsive, or quixotic act of courage. Some darings of this sort have been great ly admired by the world, even when law less and insubordinate, sometimes when so rash, headstrong and useless as to be al- most suicidal I
 Nathan Hale's enterprise was not of this sort-not at all. It took none of the forms or glauours of ambitious soldiership, but was 8 reasoning, religious inspiration of duty. The American army had just been disastrously defeated at Long Island; Brooklyn and New York evacuated the enemy in possession; our men ill clad, ill fed, ill armed, ill disciplined, discouraged by defeat, and thinned by assertion Washington driven back on Harlem Heights, resolute and unshaken, but anx- ious and perplexed in the extreme; well nigh surrounded by British armies and fleets threatened in front, flank and rear, yet ignorant of the enemy's real purpose. Who now, in this supreme moment of peril, when the lives, liberties and fortunes of our fathers and of their postsrities arc trembling in the scales--who now will take his life in his hand, venture within the 6A- emy's lines, and discover his strength and design?
 Is there none? 'Tis Washington who asks and Knowlton who repeats the ques- hon. Yes, great captain of our liberties, dauntless soldier of God, one there is--only era <a ;