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.
A minute and interesting report by the gentleman to whom this delicate service was assigned, embracing an historical account of the tribe, and describing their present condition, character and numbers, with the situation, value, and improvement of their property, and the manner in which the guardianship constituted by law has been exercised over them, accompanies this communication. The Indians have received an assurance, that the attention of the Legislature shall be invited to their complaints, and the report will not fail to assist in the deliberations to which the subject may give occasion.
Does it not appear from, this, and from his message, that the Ex-Governor is a man of pure republican principles? He seems to consider the Marshpees as strangers, and thinks they ought to be driven to the wilds of the far West; in humble imitation of that wise, learned, and humane politician, Andrew Jackson, L.L.D.
I do consider that neither I nor any of my brethren enjoy any political rights; and I desire that I and they may be treated like men, and not like children. If any among us are capable of discharging the duties of office, I wish them to be made eligible, and I wish for the right of suffrage which other men exercise, though not for the purpose of pleasing any party by our votes. I never did so, and I never will. O, that all men of color thought and felt as I do on this subject.
I believe that Governor Lincoln had no regard whatever for our rights and liberties; but as he did not get his ends answered, I shall leave him to his conscience. The following from Mr. Hallett, of the Advocate, fully explains his message:
THE MARSHPEE INDIANS.
The current seems to be setting very strong against extending any relief to our red brethren. Governor Lincoln's ex-message has served to turn back all the kind feelings that were beginning to expand toward the Marshpee tribe, and force and intimidation are to be substituted for kindness and mercy.
We cannot but think that Massachusetts will be dishonored by pursuing the stern course recommended by Ex-Governor Lincoln, who seems, by one of his letters to Mr. Fiske, to have contemplated almost with pleasure, the prospect of superintending in person, military movements against a handful of Indians, who could not have mustered twenty muskets on the plantation.
We see now how unjust we have been to the Georgians in their treatment of the Cherokees, and if we persist in oppressing the Marshpee Indians, let us hasten to unresolve all the glowing resolves we made in favor of the Georgia Indians. If Governor Lincoln is right in his unkind denunciation of the poor Marshpee Indians, then was not Governor Troop of Georgia right, in his messages and measures against the Cherokees? If the Court at Barnstable was right in imprisoning the Indians for attempting to get their rights, as they understood them, and made their ignorance of the law no excuse, were not the Courts of Georgia justifiable in their condemnation of the Cherokees, for violations of laws enforced against the will of the helpless Indians?
Oh, it was glorious to be generous, and magnanimous and philanthropic toward the Cherokees, and to weep over the barbarities of Georgia, because that could be turned to account against General Jackson; but when it comes home to our own bosoms, when a little handful of red men in our own State, come and ask us for permission to manage their own property, under reasonable restrictions, and presume to resolve that all men are free and equal, without regard to complexion; Governor Lincoln denounces it as sedition, the Legislature are exhorted to turn a deaf ear, and the Indians are left to their choice between submission to tyrannical laws, or having the militia called out to shoot them. How glorious this will read in history!