How History Unfolds on Paper: Important Americana from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part X

The Selector
London: Printed and Sold at Laidler's-Office, 1776. Number II. First edition. 8vo. (ii), 86 pp. Disbound; scattered minor soiling and spotting. ESTC P3129 (locating three copies in two libraries).

Rare and short-lived biweekly periodical with reports on the American Revolution, including an early report on the death of American spy Nathan Hale (p. 78) in a September 25 letter from New York: "On the 22d we hanged a man who was sent as a spy by Gen. Washington." 

Nathan Hale (1755-1776) was an American soldier and spy for the Continental Army. On September 8, 1776 he volunteered to go behind enemy lines on behalf of the Continental Army to gather intelligence on British troop movements in New York City. According to Connecticut shopkeeper and loyalist Consider Tiffany, Hale was recognized by Major Robert Rogers of the Queen's Rangers at a tavern, who tricked him into betraying his allegiance to the American cause. Hale was promptly arrested and sentenced to death by hanging.

According to British Captain John Montresor, as recorded in the memoirs of American Brigadier General William Hull, "Captain Hale...was calm, and bore himself with gentle dignity, in the consciousness of rectitude and high intentions. He asked for writing materials, which I furnished him: he wrote two letters, one to his mother and one to a brother officer. He was shortly after summoned to the gallows. But a few persons were around him, yet his characteristic dying words were remembered. He said, 'I only regret, that I have but one life to lose for my country.'" Though the veracity of the quote itself has been disputed in years since, it has became an iconic rallying cry for American freedom and is today regarded as one of the most consequential in American history.