Much would be made of Hale’s last words, and admirers later credited him with a line paraphrased from Joseph Addison’s Cato, revered by republicans: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” More likely is Captain Mackenzie’s contemporary account that “he behaved with great composure and resolution … and desired the spectators to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it might appear.” Whether Hale was forced up a ladder and fitted with a noose dangling from a tree limb or hanged by having a cart drawn from under his feet, he departed this earth at
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