It will be seen that little was done concerning our tribe, from the session of the Court at Barnstable up to the meeting of the Legislature, though the opposition to us had wealth, talent and power in its ranks.  Clergymen, lawyers, physicians, counsellors, Governor, senators, and representatives were arrayed against us; and we Marshpees account all who opposed our freedom, as tories, hostile to the constitution, and the liberties of the country.  This is our sincere opinion of them, and it is to us a thing inexplicable that his Excellency, the then Governor, should have seen fit to place himself at their head.[8] We desire to thank our Maker that they found themselves in the minority of the people, and fell in the esteem of Christian and benevolent persons who heard of their conduct.  We thank the majority of the controllers of public affairs, that they had more sense than to think of holding the rightful lords of the soil in bondage any longer, for the gratification of selfish and unjust men.  Honorable is it to Massachusetts that there are enough good and upright men in authority, to counteract the measures of those of a different character, and remedy the evils they may occasion.

I shall now proceed to present to my brethren, an Indian’s appeal to them, and the laws framed by the Legislature for the oppression and moral and political destruction of the Marshpees in by-gone days.  My comments thereupon will be omitted, because, should I say all the subject suggests, it would swell my book to a bulk that would be wearisome to the reader.

    AN INDIAN’S APPEAL TO THE WHITE MEN OF MASSACHUSETTS.

As our brethren, the white men of Massachusetts, have recently manifested much sympathy for the red men of the Cherokee nation, who have suffered much from their white brethren; as it is contended in this State, that our red brethren, the Cherokees, should be an independent people, having the privileges of the white men; we, the red men of the Marshpee tribe, consider it a favorable time to speak.  We are not free.  We wish to be so, as much as the red men of Georgia.  How will the white man of Massachusetts ask favor for the red men of the South, while the poor Marshpee red men, his near neighbors, sigh in bondage?  Will not your white brothers of Georgia tell you to look at home, and clear your own borders of oppression, before you trouble them?  Will you think of this?  What would be benevolence in Georgia, the red man thinks would be so in Massachusetts.  You plead for the Cherokees, will you not raise your voice for the red man of Marshpee?  Our overseers are not kind; they speak, you hear them.  When we speak for ourselves, our voice is so feeble it is not heard.

You think the men you give us do us good, and that all is right.  Brothers, you are deceived; they do us no good.  We do them good.  They like the place where you have put them.  Brothers, our fathers of this State meet soon to make laws; will you help us to enable them to hear the voice of the red man?

        Marshpee, Dec. 19, 1833.