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on their return through the region to Washington City — The Citizens asked permission to take such disabled animals & take the chances of making them serviceable by care & attention  in their crippled & deseased condition; or when animals were deliver by the Quartermaster later in the season to enable farmers to prepare for crops to avert impending famine such animals were in nearly every instance of the condemned class. It is true that very great relief was administered to destitute communities by the humane arrangement, but it was happily achieved at a comparatively trifling cost to the government when the actual value of the animals so delivered is regarded. It has been by long continual care nursing & feeding that such animals were made serviceable. Most of them now are in the possession of very poor people who were entirely dependent the present year on their laboring to make bread for their families, and these persons are now dependent on these animals to procure the fuel needed to preserve themselves & families from the rigor of the winter already begun. It will inevitably [[over written]]result in[[/over written]] immediate & severe suffering in many families to lose the services of the only horse or mule thus obtained, they have no other draft animal & no means to supply another. This meeting entertains the trust that the government will not under such circumstances insist on the present enforcement of said order.
3. Resolved that this meeting appeals to the proper authorities of the U S. Government to suspend the enforcement of such order, & if deemed necessary to cause  enquiries to be instituted in order to verify the truth of the statements