We are mortified for the honor of the State, to learn from
Barnstable County, that the Court of Common Pleas and Sessions
there, (Judge Cummins,) have tried and convicted William Apes
and six Indiana of the Marshpee tribe, upon charges connected
with the efforts of the Indiana to obtain justice from their
white masters. Apes is very popular with the Indians, and
this persecution of him, which at least was unnecessary, will
inflame them the more.
The papers say the conviction was for _riot_. This cannot
be, for there was no riot, and no riot act read. Apes and
his associates prevented a man from carrying wood off the
plantation. They were, perhaps, wrong in doing so, but the
law which takes this wood from the Indian proprietors, is as
unjust and unconstitutional as the Georgia laws, that take the
gold mines from the Cherokees. Could the question of property
have been tried, the act of stopping their own wood, by the
Indians, could not have been made even trespass, much less
riot. It is said that Apes and the rest were indicted under
some obsolete law, making it a misdemeanor to conspire against
the laws. We have looked for such an act, but cannot find it
in the Statute Book.
At any rate, law or no law, the Indians were indicted and
convicted. They were tried by their opponents, and it would be
impossible to get justice done them in Barnstable County. An
impartial jury could not be found there. It is the interest of
too many to keep the Indians degraded. We think the conviction
of these Indians is an act of cruelty and oppression,
disgraceful to the Commonwealth. The Marshpee Indians are
wronged and oppressed by our laws, nearly as much as ever the
Cherokees were by the Georgians. But it is useless to call for
the exercise of philanthropy at _home_. It is all expended
_abroad_.
An attempt was made to indict some of the white harpies, who
are selling rum to the Indians, without license. Those men got
clear, and are still suffered to prey on the poor Indians;
but to stop a load of wood, which in reality belonged to the
Indians themselves, was an outrage which the Court were ready
enough to punish! Is it creditable to let the _white_ spiders
break through the laws, while we catch and crush the poor
Indian flies?