Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts Relative to the Marshpee Tribe: Or, the Pretended Riot ExplainedApess, William
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Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts Relative to the Marshpee Tribe: Or, the Pretended Riot Explained
Apess, William
Indians of North America -- Legal status, laws, etc.; Mashpee Indians -- Land tenure; Mashpee Indians -- Legal status, laws, etc.
It appears that I, William Apes, have been much persecuted and abused,
merely for desiring the welfare of myself and brethren, and because I
would not suffer myself to be trodden under foot by people no better
than myself, as I can see. In connection with this, I say I was never
arraigned before any Court, to the injury of my reputation, save once,
at Marshpee, for a pretended riot. An attempt to blast a man merely
for insisting on his rights, and no more, is a blot on the character
of him who undertakes it, and not upon the person attempted to be
injured; let him be great or small in the world's eyes. I can safely
say that no charge that has ever been brought against me, written
or verbal, has ever been made good by evidence in any civil or
ecclesiastical court. Many things have been said to my disparagement
in the public prints. Much was said to the General Court, as that I
was a gambler in lotteries, and had begged money from the Indians to
buy tickets with. This calumny took its rise from certain articles
printed in the Boston Gazette, written, as I have good reason to
believe, by one Reynolds, a proper authority. He has been an inmate of
the State prison, in Windsor, Vermont, once for a term of two
years, and again for fourteen, as in part appears by the following
certificate of a responsible person.
CONCORD, N.H. JUNE 27, 1832.
_To all whom it may concern_.
This may certify, that _John Reynolds_, once an inmate
of Vermont State Prison, and since a professed Episcopal
Methodist, and also a licensed local preacher in Windsor,
Conn. came to this place about June, 1830, recommended by
Brother J. Robbins, as a man worthy of our patronage; and of
course I employed him to supply for me in Ware and Hopkinton,
(both in N.H.) in which places he was for a short time,
apparently useful. But the time shortly arrived when it
appeared that he was pursuing a course that rendered him
worthy of censure. I therefore commenced measures to put him
down from preaching; but before I could get fully prepared for
him, he was gone out of my reach. I would however observe, he
wrote me a line from Portsmouth, enclosing his license, also
stating his withdrawal from us; and thus evaded trial. We
have, therefore, never considered him worthy of a place in any
Christian church since he left Hopkinton, in May, 1831. And
I feel authorized to state, that he does not deserve the
confidence of any respectable body of people.
E.W. STICKNEY, Circuit Preacher,
In the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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