Chapter 7

I use these pieces chiefly because they partly correspond in truth and spirit with what I have already said. Let our friends but read the laws, and they will see what the sword of the Commonwealth is intended for. In the second article there is a grievous mistake. It says that the government has assisted us. The Marshpee Indians have always paid their full share of taxes, and very great ones they have been. They have defrayed the expense of two town meetings a year, and one of two of the white men whose presence was necessary, lived twenty-five miles off. The meetings lasted three or four days at a time, during which, these men lived upon the best, at our cost, and charged us three dollars a day, and twenty-five cents a mile, travelling expenses, going and coming into the bargain. This amounts to thirty-five dollars a trip; and as there were, as has already been said, two visitations a year, it appears that we have paid seventy dollars a year to bring one visitor, whose absence would have been much more agreeable to us than his presence. Extend this calculation to the number of seven persons, and the other expenses of our misgovernment, and perhaps some other expenditures not mentioned, and see what a sum our tax will amount to.

The next article is from the Boston Advocate of December 27, 1833.

THE MARSHPEE INDIANS.

It was stated in the Barnstable Journal the other day, and has been copied into other papers, that the Marshpee Indians were generally satisfied with their situation, and desired no change, and that the excitement, produced principally by Mr. Apes, had subsided. We had no doubt this statement was incorrect, because we had personally visited most of the tribe, in their houses and wigwams, in August last, and found but one settled feeling of wrong and oppression pervading the whole; not a new impulse depending upon Mr. Apes or any other man, but the result of the unjust laws which have ruled them like a complete despotism.

The Overseers are not so much to blame as the laws. We doubt not they have acted honestly; but, in the spirit of the laws, they have almost unavoidably exercised a stern control over the property and persons of the tribe. In fact the laws, as they now stand, almost permit the Overseers, with impunity, to sell the Indians for slaves. They can bind them out as they please, do as they please with their contracts, expel them from the plantation almost at will, and in fact use them nearly as slaves. We do not think they have intentionally done wrong to the Indians, but the whole system of government is wrong; and hence the unalterable dislike the Indians have to their Overseers. No better men could be appointed, that we know of; but the best men must play the tyrant, if they execute the present laws, designed as they are to _oppress_, and not to protect the poor Indians.

We have known these Indians, from our youth up. They live near our native home. The first pleasure we ever derived from the exercise of benevolence, was in satisfying the calls of their women and children for bread, at our father's door, and we always found them kind hearted to those who were kind to them. We have often met with them to worship in their rural meeting-house, and have again and again explored with the angling rod, the romantic stream, abounding with the nimble trout, which courses through their plantation.

For those reasons, and these alone, we felt it our duty to give them an opportunity to be heard through the columns of our paper, while all others were closed to them, or cold to their complaints. If we can do them any good, we shall have a full reward in the act itself. We have it already in the simple tribute of gratitude, which they have unexpectedly bestowed upon our poor services.

They have sent us a communication, which is signed by the best men in the tribe. We know most of these names, and they belong to the most sensible and most industrious to be found on the plantation. Will other papers publish this simple appeal to the justice of the white men? It is useless to say after this, that the Indians of Marshpee are content with their condition. Something must be done for them.

MARSHPEE INDIANS.

"MR. HALLETT,

It has been stated in some of the papers that the Marshpee Indians are generally satisfied with their situation, and the conduct of the Overseers, and want no change. It is also said that the most industrious men on the plantation are opposed to petitioning the Legislature to give them the management of their own property; and they would all have been quiet, if it had not been for Mr. Apes.

Now we know something of our own rights without being told by Mr. Apes, or any one. We have confidence in Mr. Apes, and have seen no reason to doubt that he means well; but our dissatisfaction with the laws and the Overseers was the same as it is now, long before Mr. Apes came among us, and he will have our confidence no longer than while we are satisfied he does right. If he does wrong, we shall oppose him as soon as any man, but so long as he honestly aids us in seeking for our rights, we shall be in his favor. He is only one of us, and has no more authority over the tribe than any other member of it. He has been adopted into the tribe, according to the Indian custom; and as long as he deserves our confidence, we shall regard him as a friend.

But it is unfair to attempt to prejudice the public against us, while we are petitioning for our rights. It is not true that the Indians are satisfied. The Legislature ought not to be deceived by such stories from interested men. There is a universal dissatisfaction with our condition, and unless something is done to relieve us, the whole tribe must suffer, and they will feel as if they must give up all hope of improving their condition. We wish you to publish this with our names, that the public may not be deceived.

Daniel B. Amos, James Hush, Ezra Attaquin, Christopher Hinson, Aaron Keeter, Joseph Pocknet, Nicholas Pocknet, David Wilbur, William X[Note: sideways X] Jones, (his mark,) Isaac X[Note: sideways X] Simons, " Oaks A. Coombs, Isaac Coombs, James Lowes, George Cannada, Richard Simon, Daniel X[Note: sideways X] Pocknet, (his mark,) Peter X[Note: sideways X] Squib, " Joseph X[Note: sideways X] Squib, " Jacob X[Note: sideways X] Pocknet, " Israel Amos, David Mingo.

N.B. There could be a host of names procured, but we think here are enough to satisfy the whole earth that we are _not_ satisfied to remain in bondage.

We also feel very grateful for the patriotic and benevolent course that the worthy editor, Mr. Hallett, has pursued, in laying our claims and oppression before the public, especially as he has done it without asking the least compensation. We rejoice to find such friends, for we believe them to be Christians, and impartial philanthropists.

Gentlemen and ladies of other papers are not forgotten. The Indian's heart swells with gratitude to them for noticing us; and we wish that editors who are friends to our rights, would please notice the above.

Done at a regular meeting at Marshpee, Dec. 23, 1833.

DANIEL B. AMOS, _Sec'y. Marshpee, Dec. 23, 1833_."

I quote these articles only because they serve to show that there was a disposition prevalent among the editorial fraternity, to prejudice the people at large against the rights and liberties of the Indians.

After our petition had been presented, our delegates obtained admission into the Hall of the Representatives, where they were privileged to tell their own story. Our enemies endeavored to hinder them even of this, though without success; and thankful are we that they did not succeed. It will be seen from the following, that the delegation were not unmindful of their duty.

The address of the Marshpee Indians at Boylston Hall, last evening, was listened to with great attention, by a crowded house, and with approbation, too, if we may judge from the repeated marks of applause.

The address at the State House last Friday evening was also attended by an overflowing house. We were unable to get in, and cannot, therefore, say what effect was produced by it.

The next is from the Liberator of Jan. 25, 1834.

THE MARSHPEE INDIANS.

This is a small tribe, comprising four or five hundred persons, residing at the head of Cape Cod, in Barnstable County. They have long been under the guardianship of the State, treated as paupers, and subjected to the control of a Board of Overseers. A memorial from them was presented to the Legislature last week, (written entirely by one of their number,) in which they set forth the grievances which are imposed upon them, the injustice and impolicy of the laws affecting their tribe, the arbitrary and capricious conduct of the Overseers, and the manner in which they are defrauded of the fruits of their labor; and earnestly beseech the Legislature to grant them the same liberty of action as is enjoyed by their white brethren, that they may manage their own concerns, and be directly amenable to the laws of the State, and not to their present Overseers.

A delegation from this tribe is now in this city, consisting of Deacon Coombs, Daniel Amos, and William Apes. The use of the Hall of the House of Representatives having been granted to them, they made a public statement of their situation and wants to a crowded audience on Friday evening last, principally composed of members of the House; and were listened to most respectfully and attentively.

Deacon Coombs first addressed the assembly, in a brief but somewhat indefinite speech; the purport of which was, that, although by taking side with the Overseers, he might have advanced his own interests, he nevertheless chose to suffer with his people, and to plead in their behalf. Their condition was growing more and more intolerable; excessive exactions were imposed upon them; their industry was crippled by taxation; they wished to have the Overseers discharged.

Daniel Amos next addressed the meeting. He said he was aware of his ignorance; but although his words might be few, and his language broken, he as deeply sympathized with his suffering constituents, as any of his tribe. He gave a short sketch of his life, by which it appeared that he went at an early period on a whaling voyage, and received some bodily injury which incapacitated him from hard labor for a long time. He sought his native home, and soon experienced the severity of those laws, which, though enacted seemingly to protect the tribe, are retarding their improvement, and oppressing their spirits. The present difficulties were not of recent origin. He stated, with commendable pride, that he had never been struck for ill-behaviour, nor imprisoned for crime or debt; nor was he ashamed to show his face again in any place he had visited; and he had been round a large portion of the globe. The memorial before the Legislature had been read to the tribe; some parts had been omitted at their request; and nothing had been sent but by their unanimous consent. After vindicating the character of Mr. Apes, and enumerating some of the complaints of the tribe.

He was followed by William Apes, who, in a fearless, comprehensive and eloquent speech, endeavored to prove that, under such laws and such Overseers, no people could rise from their degradation. He illustrated the manner in which extortions were made from the poor Indians, and plainly declared that they wanted their rights as men and as freemen. Although comparatively ignorant, yet they knew enough to manage their own concerns more equitably and economically than they were then managed; and notwithstanding the difficulties under which they labored, their moral condition was improving. There was not so much intemperance among them as formerly; many of the tribe were shrewd, intelligent and respectable men; and all that was necessary to raise up the entire mass from their low estate, was the removal of those fetters and restrictions which now bind them to the dust. Mr. Apes described the cause and the extent of the disturbance which took place last summer, and which resulted in his imprisonment. The head and front of their offending was in going into the woods, and unloading a cart, and causing it to be sent away empty. The reason for that procedure was, that they wished no more wood to be cut until an investigation of their rights had been made. They used no violence; uttered no oaths; made no throats; and took no weapons of defence. Every thing was done quietly, but firmly. Mr. Apes wished to know from whence the right to tax them without their consent, and at pleasure, and subject them to the arbitrary control of a Board of Overseers, was derived? He knew not himself; but he feared it was from the color of their skin. He concluded by making a forcible appeal to the justice and humanity of the Legislature, and expressing his confidence that the prayer of the memorialists would not be made in vain.

In several instances, the speakers made some dextrous and pointed thrusts at the whites, for their treatment of the sons of the forest since the time of the pilgrims, which were received with applause by the audience. They were all careful in their references to the conduct of the Overseers; they wished to say as little about them as possible; but they wanted their removal forthwith.

This is the first time our attention has been seriously called to the situation of this tribe. It is a case not to be treated with contempt, or disposed of hastily. It involves the rights, the interests, and the happiness of a large number of that race which has been nearly exterminated by the neglect, the oppression, and the cruelty of a superior number of foreign invaders.

In the enslavement of two millions of American people in the Southern States, the tyranny of this nation assumes a gigantic form. The magnitude of the crime elevates the indignation of the soul. Such august villainy and stupendous iniquity soar above disgust, and mount up to astonishment. A conflagration like that of Moscow, is full of sublimity, though dreadful in its effects; but the burning of a solitary hut makes the incendiary despicable by the meanness of the act.

In the present case, this State is guilty of a series of petty impositions upon a feeble band, which excite not so much indignation as disgust. They may be, and doubtless are, the blunders of legislation; the philanthropy of proscriptive ignorance; the atoning injuries of prejudice, rather than deliberate oppression. No matter who are the Overseers, (we know them not,) nor how faithfully they have executed the laws. The complaint is principally against the State; incidentally against them. They may succeed, perhaps, in vindicating their own conduct; but the State is to be judged out of the Statute Book, by the laws now in force for the regulation of the tribe. Fearing, in the plenitude of its benevolence, that the Indians would never rise to be men, the Commonwealth has, in the perfection of its wisdom, given them over to absolute pauperism. Believing they were incapable of self-government as free citizens, it has placed them under a guardianship which is sure to keep them in the chains of a servile dependance. Deprecating partial and occasional injustice to them on the part of individuals, it has shrewdly deemed it lawful to plunder them by wholesale, continually. Lamenting that the current of vitality is not strong enough to give them muscular vigor and robust health, it has fastened upon them leeches to fatten on their blood. Assuming that they would be too indolent to labor if they had all the fruits of their industry, it has taken away all motives for superior exertions, by keeping back a portion of their wages. Dreading lest they should run too fast, and too far, in an unfettered state, it has loaded them with chains so effectually as to prevent their running at all. These are some of the excellencies of that paternal guardianship, under which they now groan, and from which they desire the Legislature to grant them deliverance.

We are proud to see this spontaneous, earnest, upward movement of our red brethren. It is not to be stigmatized as turbulent, but applauded as meritorious. It is sedition, it is true; but only the sedition of freedom against oppression; of justice against fraud; of humanity against cruelty. It is the intellect opposed to darkness; the soul opposed to degradation. It is an earnest of better things to come, provided the struggling spirit be set free. Let this tribe have at least a fair trial. While they remain as paupers, they will feel like paupers; be regarded like paupers; be degraded like paupers. We protest against this unnatural order of things; and now that the case has come under our cognizance, we shall not abandon it hastily.

We are aware that another, and probably an opposite view of this case is to be laid before the public, on the part of a commissioner delegated by the Governor and Council, to inquire into the difficulties which have arisen between the tribe and the Overseers. We shall wait to get a glimpse of it before we pass judgment upon it. Whatever may be alleged either against the Indians or against those who hold a supervision over them, or whatever may be said in favor of them both; we have felt authorized to make the foregoing remarks, upon an examination of the laws enacted for the government of these discordant parties. An augmentation, diminution, or change of the Board of Overseers, will not remedy the evil. It lies elsewhere; in the absolute prostration of the petitioners by a blind legislation. They are not, and do not aspire to be an independent government, but citizens of Massachusetts.

Fortunately, there is a soul for freedom in the present Legislature. A more independent House of Representatives has never been elected by the people. The cries of the Indians have reached their ears, and we trust affected their hearts. They will abolish a needless and unjust protectorate. The limb, which is now disjointed and bleeding, will be united to the body politic. What belongs to the red man shall hereafter in truth be his; and, thirsting for knowledge and aspiring to be free, every fetter shall be broken and his soul made glad.

About this time the opposition of our enemies increased to a flood. Yet we remained undismayed; for we knew that we had the right on our side. So we endured the shots of their sharp shooters against us patiently. The following, from the Boston Courier of January 28, 1834, will show to what I allude.

Late in the month of June last, an extraordinary proceeding was had by the Marshpee tribe of Indians, residing on their plantation in Barnstable County, under the protection and guardianship of this Commonwealth. Excited, as it has since appeared, by the turbulent spirit of a stranger and intruder, they assembled in what they termed a town meeting, and adopted resolutions declaring their independence of the government of Massachusetts, abjuring the authority of the laws, and proclaiming that after the first day of July then next, they should assume the management of their own affairs; and, _that "they would not permit any white man from that day, to come upon their Plantation to cut or carry off any wood, hay, or other article, without their permission, under the penalty of being bound and thrown from the Plantation."_

To allay the excitement which had been created among these misguided people, and to ascertain and remove, as far and as speedily as possible, any just cause of complaint, the most prompt measures were adopted by the Executive. A discreet and confidential agent was despatched to the plantation with instructions to make thorough examination into their grievances, real or supposed, and to become acquainted with their condition, and what their interest and comfort required. He was especially charged to represent to them the parental feelings and regard of the government of the Commonwealth towards them; to assure the head men, that, if the Overseers appointed by the State, had been unjust or unkind, they should forthwith be removed, and others appointed in their stead, and the wrongs sustained at their hand amply redressed, but that the guardianship, originally imposed for their security against the frauds and wicked devices of unprincipled white men, and continued under frequent assurances, _by the Indians themselves_, of its necessity, could not be suspended by the authority of the Governor and Council. That this rested with the Legislature, to which, after careful investigation of their complaints, a proper representation would be made by the Executive. He was also directed to caution them against heeding the counsels of those who would excite them to disquiet in their present situation, and to admonish them, that disorder and resistance to any rightful authority would meet with immediate and exemplary correction, through the civil tribunals.

On reaching the plantation, the agent found these deluded people in a state of open rebellion against the government of the State, having with force, seized upon the Meeting-house, rescued from the Overseers a portion of property in their possession, chosen officers of their own, and threatened violence to all who should attempt to interfere with them, in the measures of _self-government_ which they had assumed. These threatenings and outrages had already created great alarm among the white inhabitants in the neighborhood, and induced to apprehensions of more serious consequences. Through the firmness and prudence of the agent, sustained by the advice and good offices of several intelligent citizens of the County, the leader in the sedition was arrested for a breach of the peace, and delivered over to the civil authority. An inquiry into the conduct of the Overseers subsequently conducted by the agent in the presence of the head men, and the conciliatory, and friendly explanations offered to the tribe, of their relations to the government of the State, resulted in inducing them to rescind their former violent resolves, and restored quiet to the plantation.