Alexander Rose > Quotes

“Winter was traditionally a quiet time for armies, summer being the accepted and most civilized season to recommence killing the enemy.”
― Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring

“His anguished mind writhed with contradictions. He was a man of parts and halfs, in a time of wholes and absolutes.”
― Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring

“And so, Woodhull single-mindedly devoted himself to destroying the British, their allies, and all that they stood for by spying the daylights out of them.”
― Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring

“And therefore I ordered him to be instantly hanged.”
― Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring

“Every student doffed his hat when the president approached, and bowed as he passed, or faced his wrath. Freshmen, meanwhile, acted as flunkies for the upperclassmen, who exacted a very painful form of punishment on those unwise enough to tell them where to go. The first priority, apart from striving to”
― Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring

“Yale students were the first American students to organize a boycott against British-made goods, and when Hale was entering, the graduating class voted almost unanimously to appear “wholly dressed in the manufactures of our own country” at their commencement ceremony.”
― Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring

“Yale was notorious for its politics. Afterwards, one fierce Loyalist, Thomas Jones, recalled bitterly of his alma mater that it was nothing but “a nursery of sedition, of faction, and republicanism,” while General Thomas Gage, commander of the British forces in North America, branded the place “a seminary of democracy” full of “pretended patriots.”
― Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring

“Owing to his seafaring experience, Brewster served as a mate, and imbibed a great deal of invaluable nautical knowledge—which would come in useful as he navigated the Sound—the “Devil’s Belt”—in the dark of the wartime night. He was back home by May 1775, when he signed a petition backing Selah Strong for the post of delegate to the Provincial Convention.40 Strong (born 1737) was a kinsman of Abraham Woodhull’s, as well as his neighbor. Demonstrating how intricately Setauket’s families were enmeshed, Strong’s sister would later marry Tallmadge’s father as his second wife, and his wife Anna’s relative, Mary, would marry Woodhull.”
― Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring