Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Lawrence W Reed
“Have you ever received a letter that changed your life? On July 4, 1775, a full year before the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, a 20-year-old Connecticut man named Nathan Hale received such a letter. It was from his Yale classmate Benjamin Tallmadge, who was on the front lines as a secret agent for the Americans while the British lay siege to Boston. … Tallmadge’s letter inspired Hale to accept a commission two days later as first lieutenant in Colonel Charles Webb’s 7th Connecticut Regiment. The teacher was now officially a soldier and a spy in a hastily organized, ragtag Colonial army. The enemy? Nothing less than the world’s greatest military power. Fourteen months later, Hale would be dead at the age of 21 and enter American history as one of its bravest patriots.” (12/16/25)
https://fee.org/articles/a-hero-americans-must-never-forget/