We respect the President and Trustees of Harvard College.  They are honorable men and mean to do right, but I ask them to look at this statement, then to read the will of Mr. Williams, and laying their hands upon their heart, to ask in the presence of the God of the Indian as well as the white man, whether they have done unto the Indians of New England and their children, as they would that the Indians should do unto them and their children?  We are told that we might bring a suit in equity, or in some way, to compel the Trustees of the Williams fund, to distribute it as the pious donor meant, not for the conversion of the whites, even to the taking away from the Indians of their Meeting-house and lands, but for “the blessed work of converting the poor Indians,” as Mr. Williams says in his will.

But it is hard for Indians to contend in the courts of white men, against white men.  We can have none of our people to decide such questions, and what could we do against all the power and influence of the Corporation of Harvard College?  If the President and Fellows of Harvard College prefer to deal unjustly by the poor Indians, and violate the trust of Mr. Williams, by giving the funds to the whites instead of the poor Indians, they must submit to the wrong, we suppose, for there are none strong enough to help them.  They can take the money from the Indians, but cannot compel them to hear a preacher they dislike.

Some people may say that William Apes wants to get what Mr. Fish has, but all he asks is, that Harvard College and the State will not support an established religion in Marshpee, but leave the Indians free to choose for themselves.  Mr. Williams did not give his property to the Marshpee Indians, more than to any others.  It was designed for all the Indians in New England, and we cannot see what right Harvard College has to give it all for the whites near Marshpee and the Indians on Martha’s Vineyard.  If they are afraid that blind Joseph or William Apes, the Indian preachers, should have any of this money, if it is withdrawn from Mr. Fish, let them take it, and send a missionary among the Marshpee Indians they like.  Or let them employ a man, some Elliot, if they can find one, to visit all the Indians in New England, to find out their condition and spiritual wants, and try to relieve them.  This would be doing some good with money that is now only used to disturb the Indians, to take from them their Meeting-house, to create divisions among them, and turn what the pious Williams meant for a blessing into a curse to the Indians.  What would the pious Williams say to Harvard College, could he visit Marshpee on a Sabbath?  He might go to the Meeting-House built for the Indians, by the society in England, of which I believe he was a principal member.  He would find a while man in the pulpit, white singers loading the worship, and the body of the church occupied by seventy or a hundred white persons, of the neighboring villages, scarcely