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Resolved, By the inhabitants of the town of Gloucester, in legal town-meeting assembled, that while we are utterly and unalterably opposed to oppression in all forms and circumstances, and especially the holding of human beings in bondage, we nevertheless fully recognize the compromises of the Constitution of the United States, and ever have, and now do fully and freely accord to those States in which slavery exists by law all their constitutional rights and privileges in the Union. Resolved, That those States which have adopted ordinances of secession have violated their plighted faith to the Union, and in making war upon the Federal Government, and by armed force prevented it from furnishing to those employed in its service the means of subsistence, and by their proclamation invited the indiscriminate destruction of property, they have exhibited all their meanness and cowardice, without any of the better qualities of the rebel, the Traitor, and the Pirate. Resolved, That the threat that the Palmetto Flag shall yet wave over our ‘Cradle of Liberty’ partakes of the same qualities which threatened the roll-call of the slave master shall yet be heard in the shadow of the monument on Bunker Hill; which threatened the assassination of the President elect; which threatened to prevent his inauguration ; which has threatened to overthrow his administration; which has threatened to destroy the capital; which has bombarded Fort Sumter; which has excited the mob to resist the passage of the military through the city of Baltimore, though its mission was only to assist in defending the capital against the invasion of rebel forces. Resolved, That the blood of our murdered fellow-citizens calls loudly and imperatively upon every lover of his country and of Liberty, to rally to the support, maintenance, and defence of all those who are or may be engaged in defence of the Federal Government. Therefore— Resolved, That the sum of ten thousand dollars be, and hereafter is, appropriated by the town of Gloucester, to be expended in providing for the clothing, support, and maintenance of such of our fellow-citizens as have enlisted or may enlist in the service of the Federal Government, and of their families who remain among us. Resolved, That we hereby, one and all, pledge ourselves to support the Federal Government at all hazards.John S. E. Rogers, Charles Fitz, John W. Low, Eben H. Stacy, and George W. Plumer were appointed to act as a committee of distribution, and to have the supervision of the money appropriated under the fifth resolution.
