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.
this Meeting-house as _our_ Meeting-house, and it was built for them,
without a dollar from the white men of this country, except when the
Legislature, at the petition of the Indians, repaired it in 1816. And
now, no Indian can go inside of it, but by the permission of Mr. Fish,
whom they will not hear preach.
It seems that the Indians are not to have the benefit of any thing
given to them. It must all go to the whites. The whites have our
Meeting-house, and make Marshpee pay about one-third the support of a
minister they will not hear preach. The other two-thirds comes from a
fund. In 1711, a pious man named Williams, died in England, and in his
will he said, "I give the remainder of my estate to be paid yearly to
the College of Cambridge, in New England, or to such as are usually
employed to manage the blessed work of _converting the poor Indians_
there, to promote which, I design this part of my gift."
This was the trust of a dying man, given to Harvard College, that
great and honorable Literary Institution. And how do they fulfil the
solemn trust? They have been and still are paying about five hundred
dollars a year to a missionary for preaching to the whites. This
missionary, by his own statement, [see Mr. Hallett's argument,] shows
he has added to his church _twenty_ members from the tribe of over
three hundred persons, in _twenty-two years_. Is not this more
expensive in proportion to the good done, than any heathen mission
on record? Mr. Fish has now been preaching in Marshpee _twenty-four
years_. In that time he has received from the Williams fund, given
solely to convert the poor Indians, about five hundred dollars a year,
as nigh as can be ascertained, which is TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS for
persuading twenty colored persons to join his church. This is six
hundred dollars for every member added to his church, and if his other
pay is added, it amounts to nine hundred dollars for each member.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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