Article#28 in Manchester’s ATM: the Beginning of Our Nation is Now

To the Editor,

Manchester residents have had Town Meetings since way before the founding of our Nation, and they participated in debates during the period leading up to the Revolution.  

The January 8, 1775 Town Meeting choose a Committee to come up with an amount of money for the support of the minute men in Manchester, according to the “History of the Town of Manchester, Essex County, Massachusetts 1645-1895” by Rev. D.F. Lamson, published in 1895.   

This week, a replica of the Forster flag is waving above the Manchester Town Common.  The Forster flag is the oldest known American flag with 13 stripes for the 13 colonies – six white stripes on one side and seven on the other.  It was first owned by Samuel Forster, a Manchester minuteman who on April 19, 1775, traveled with almost 50 other Manchester men to Lexington to engage the British who sought to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock and find weapons and gunpowder there.  They made it as far as Medford when told that the British had killed fellow colonists and then retreated back to Boston.   

The Town Meeting of July 17 voted a Committee of Correspondence which included Samuel Forster, but also Jonathan Herrick, Jacob Hooper, Aaron Lee, John Edwards, Isaac Lee, Isaac Proctor and Eleazer Crafts.  Later Crafts marched with his regiment to New York to serve under General Gates and was in the Battle of Saratoga.  A town meeting established four watches in town because they were afraid British ships would land; the watches were at Glasshead, Chubbs Creek, the center of town on Bennetts Hill, Thunder-Bolt Hill near Singing Beach, and Kettle Cove on Crow Island.  They worked on “Intrenchments” around town.  

Starting in 1777, the warrant for the town meeting began with, “In the name of the government and people of this colony” instead of “in the name of His Majesty George the Third” as it had for generations before!  Many of their complaints against King George’s “usurpations” have echoes in today’s national politics.  Warrant Article 28 for Town Meeting on April 27, 2026, is a Resolution in support of democratic principles which are being threatened by the actions of the current administration.  

Our town has had men fight in every war since the Revolution with many having lost their lives defending these principles which are under threat.  The Resolution in Support of the U.S. Constitution condemns the unconstitutional and unlawful actions of President Trump and his appointees and respectfully calls on Congress to do its job.  

Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Monday April 27 at Town Meeting and vote in favor of this Resolution in Warrant Article #28.   Many of its supporters see it as a continuation of an historic legacy in our small town of Manchester-by-the-Sea. 

Thank you.

Michele Kulick

Manchester