PEABODY — A renowned historian delivered a warning while commemorating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in Peabody Monday morning.
“I cannot ignore, at today’s remembrance of the sacrifice for liberty made by our ancient brethren, the danger that I believe our nation now faces,” Danvers Town Archivist Richard Trask said from a podium on Washington Street.
Beside him stood a monument listing the names of the Danvers and, by modern maps, Peabody men who were killed by British Regulars retreating from the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.
Hearing word of the Regulars’ march on Concord to seize colonial weapons, these seven men, Samuel Cook, Henry Jacobs, Ebenezer Goldthwaite, Benjamin Daland, Jotham Webb and Perley Putnam, rushed from their homes with muskets and trekked on foot for hours with other militiamen.
They were too far away to reach Lexington in time to fight the Regulars at Concord’s North Bridge or ambush these troops of the English King at Concord. But they continued their march forward, and ran into battered Regulars on the retreat at Menotomy, now known as Arlington.
The Danvers men were among the 25 colonists killed in what would be the bloodiest battle of the day.
Although history has largely forgotten the battle, in large thanks to Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow omitting it from his famous 1860 piece “Paul Revere’s Ride,” Danvers and Peabody come together each year on Washington Street to remember these seven men.
Their sacrifice led to the nation’s Declaration of Independence in 1776 and, in 1789, the creation of the Constitution, said Trask, one of the most respected historians of the Salem Witch Trials and North Shore colonial history who is a founding member of the Danvers Alarm List Co.
“Our form of government was codified by the ratification of the United States Constitution,” he said. “It included the establishment of co-equal branches of government, the judicial, executive and legislative. But our Constitution and our way of life can only be preserved by a vigilant citizenry who insists these branches perform as specified in this our founding document.”
Trask said the Executive branch has overstepped its power by disregarding the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution. He criticized the Department of Government Efficiency, created under President Donald Trump upon taking office in January, for its mass firings of government employees and its steps to defund agencies and programs without the consent of Congress, which is responsible for appropriating the government’s funds.
The Trump administration’s mass deportations of undocumented migrants and, in a growing number of cases, immigrants who came into the country legally, has disregarded the Constitution’s right to due process before American courts, Trask said.
“Our Constitution and our way of life can only be preserved by a vigilant citizenry who insists these branches perform as specified in this our founding document,” he said. “Fidelity is not given to a single individual, a group or a party, but to the adherence to the words and the meaning of our Constitution.”
Trask’s words of concern followed his detailed account of the events of April 19, 1775.
“We must, at this time, be brave as those young men, who in ‘75 were willing to lay their lives on the altar of liberty for a cause bigger than themselves, when our country and its future seemed in peril.”
Much of the crowd cheered or clapped for Trask as he used his walker to step back from the podium. Some who were sitting gave him a standing ovation. Others were upset.
After the program concluded, and as attendees mingled, one woman was overheard telling Peabody Historical Society President and former Peabody Mayor Michael Bonfanti that the event shouldn’t have turned political, adding Bonfanti should “be aware of what you say,” as he too had made political remarks.
Bonfanti replied that the day’s statements were only defending the Constitution, to which she said, “that’s what president is doing.”
In the background of their discussion, members of the Danvers Alarm List cleaned their muskets and posed for pictures after firing several rounds in honor of the fallen. Each Patriots’ Day, the reenactors travel to the known gravesites of the Danvers men killed at Menotomy before and after a stop for a brief ceremony at the Washington Street memorial.
In honor of the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington, Concord and Menotomy, the section of Washington Street to Pleasant Street was closed off to traffic to welcome more attendees than usual.
Visitors were given free entrance to the Peabody Historical Society’s exhibits at its headquarters, the General Gideon Foster House at 35 Washington St., and welcomed into the Bell Inn and Tavern for refreshments.
Officials from Peabody and Danvers attended the ceremony, including city councilors and Select Board members from both communities, Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt, State Rep. Sally Kerans (D-Danvers) and Tom Walsh (D-Peabody), and State Sen. Joan Lovely (D-Salem), who read a proclamation from the state honoring Patriots’ Day and the sacrifice of the fallen 250 years ago.
Looking over Monday’s crowd, Daniel Doucette, Peabody Historical Society librarian and the city’s purchasing agent, noted another special mark of the state holiday.
“Peabody has changed and Danvers has changed,” he said. “For 364-and-a-half days each year, we are separated. But at this time, we are all Danvers again.”
Contact Caroline Enos at{/em} {em}CEnos@northofboston.com.