* * *

The conception of absolute sovereignty resting in the clans need be disturbed in no way by the fact that some authorities speak frequently of the existence of an aristocracy among the Iroquois. Lafitau, for instance, speaks of the order of the "Qesendouáns,' that is to say, noble families.” A Jesuit chronicler says, too, that "they have the nobility here as well as in France, and are as proud of it. * * Again, we find mention of a woman "who by her noble birth is one of the chief women of Annié one of those who are noble and of high station." The "nobility" here spoken of were, in fact, only the governmental officials of the clans. The offices of chief and councillor, it will be remembered, were usually occupied by members of some particular family. These people inherited office, however, only in the sense that their birth made them ipso facto candidates, but their candidacy had to be approved by the clans and confirmed by an election: before that occurred, their position in the community in no way differed from that of any other member of a clan.

Nevertheless, the Iroquois village was by no means so complete a democracy as Mr. Morgan and others like to picture it. In every Iroquois tribe, a large part of the population was practically disfranchised. It has been shown that sovereignty was in the hands of the clan organization. Now, though every one in the village was associated with some gens, not everyone was a member in full standing of either the male or the female clan of that gens.

On the contrary, in every gentile group there were always numbers of captives who, though destined perhaps to full membership in one of the clans, were as yet still in the slave status. About 1680, within a year or two, thirteen hundred such captives were brought in from neighboring tribes. Most of these additions to the population were boys and young women and girls. They were given to such gentes as wished to increase their numbers, and in future were regarded as belonging to that particular group, rather as chattels, however, than as members of the organization. The position of these captives was, for a time at least, not at all enviable. The gens to which they belonged would probably protect them from injury from outsiders, but within the gens there was absolutely nothing to guarantee their safety. Possessing no voice in council, and no rights of any kind, they

* * *

spent their whole time producing for the benefit of their masters. In return they received food and shelter as long as they were capable, healthy, and obedient. An unskillful slave was sold for a song, and a sick slave was either abandoned or killed outright. The least cause of irritation often resulted in the death punishment. Young women slaves especially were "constantly exposed to danger through the brutal lechery or cruelty of their masters or mistresses. The only punishment for even their slightest faults is death," says a Jesuit chronicler. Yet if she escaped all these dangers, a young female captive might in the end hope to marry an Iroquois, and become a matron of equal standing with any other. Similarly, a male captive, after the death of his first owners, might become a freeman, might marry and have children, and in case of great ability, might even become a leader in the community. The Jesuit Relations mention one instance of the latter sort, when speaking of a man "formerly a captive of the Iroquois, and now a captain among them." Just what was the final status of the ordinary captive blessed with no marked ability, is a question hard to decide. Testimony rather goes to show that he never became a clansman in the full sense of the word, since he was never allowed to vote in the council. If this is so, then the number of disfranchised among the Iroquois must have been comparatively large. It must be remembered, too, that captive slaves were not the only individuals in an Iroquois village who possessed no share in sovereignty. With the captives must be classed all males who through laziness or some other infirmity of body or of will had fallen out of the warriors' organization and taken to doing women's work. These effeminate men were not received into the women's clan, but were merely classed with the slaves, and not permitted to exercise the right of suffrage. A sort of temporary slavery was sometimes the fate of the unsuccessful gambler. A man might stake his freedom for two or three years, during which time the other party in the game employed him as a servant. Such a slave was generally well treated and set free again at the end of his term.

It is clear that all that large portion of the Iroquois population which was debarred from free access to the social surplus, a privilege controlled by clans of which they were not members, were at the same time, ipso facto, kept "without the state." They were a disfranchised class having no share of sovereign power, and no

voice in the government of the group to which they belonged. The fact that they were gentiles made no difference in their lot: the essential fact was that they were not members of clans. The clan, then, and not the gens as such seems to have been the political unit in the Iroquois village; that is to say, economic conditions, rather than ties of kinship or religion, decided the form of state and government among the Iroquois.

The position of the Jugglers or Medicine-men in the community, strengthens the hypothesis just stated. These men controlled the access to the supernatural' powers without whose favor no activities of the clans could succeed in their purpose; hence, it will be remembered, the Jugglers were able to form a separate income class, taking from the clans a part of their surplus; hence, also, they controlled political life to a certain extent, and were able to force their decisions upon the clans. According to the Jesuit Relations, it was "the highest duty of the Captains to obey these impostors."

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EXHIBIT 244.

Letters on the Iroquois.1

By Skenandoah.2

Addressed to Albert Gallatin, LL. D., President,

New York Historical Society.

It is obvious that the founders of the Iroquois Confederacy were aware of the enfeebling effects of these repeated subdivisions, and sought, by the counter principle of federation, to arrest the evil. They aimed to knit the whole race together under such a system of relationships, that, by its natural expansion, an Indian empire would be developed of sufficient magnitude to control surrounding nations, and thus secure an exemption from perpetual warfare. We must regard it therefore as no ordinary achievement, that the legislators

"The American Review, Vol. V (1847), p. 177 at p. 178.

Lewis H. Morgan, the ethnologist, sometimes wrote under the penname "Skenandoah"-Handbook of American Indians, Vol. II, op. 588.

of the Iroquois united the several tribes into independent nations, and between these nations established a perfect and harmonious union. And beyond this, that by a still higher effort of legislation, they succeeded in so adjusting the confederacy, that as a political fabric composed of independent parts, it was yet adapted to the Hunter State, and contained the elements of an energetic government.

Upon an extended examination of their institutions, it will become manifest that these great results were secured by establishing the Confederacy upon the family relations. Their forms and ceremonies; the Tribal league, or bond of cross-relationship between the tribes of the same name through the several nations; their laws of family relatedness, and of inheritance; the relation of chief and warrior; and lastly the long house, in which, in an emblematical sense, the whole family of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee1 or Iroquois were sheltered-all indicate that this Indian structure was designed to be but an elaboration of the family relationship. These relations are older than the notion of society or government; and are consistent alike with the hunter, the pastoral, and the civilized state.

The league was so wisely constituted that it seemed a systematic combination of the race; and the pulse of the Confederacy was felt at the same instant upon the Hudson, the Susquehannah, the Iroquois lakes, the Genesee, and the Niagara. When their possessions were enlarged by conquest, followed by occupation, it was an expansion, and not a dismemberment of the Confederacy. Peace itself was one of the prominent objects of the league, to be attained by the admission of surrounding nations. To the Eries, and to the Neuter Nation, the Hodénosaunee, if their traditions may be trusted, offered the alternative of admission or extermination; and the strangeness of this proposition will disappear, when it is remembered that an Indian nation regards itself at war with all other nations not in actual alliance with itself. From whatever point we scrutinize the general features of the Confederacy, we are induced to regard it, in many respects, as a beautiful, as

'Ho-de-no-sau-nee. This is the true name of the Iroquois. It is now in use, and has been since the foundation of the Confederacy. It signifies "the People of the Long-House." Out of the circumstance that they likened their political structure to a house the name originated. The word is given in the Seneca dialect; and should be pronounced with a quick and heavy accent on the de. [Appearing in original text.]

well as remarkable structure, and to hold it up as the triumph of Indian legislation.

It is another singular feature in connection with Indian organizations, that their decline and fall are sudden, and usually simulA rude shock from without or within, but too easily disturbs their inter-relations; and when once cast back upon the predominating sentiment of Indian life-the Hunter Statea powerful nation rapidly dissolves into a multitude of fragments, and is lost and forgotten in the undistinguished mass of lesser tribes. But the Iroquois Confederacy was subjected to a severer test. It went down before the Saxon, and not the Indian race. This Indian constellation paled only before the greater constellation of the American Confederacy. * * *

Tradition has preserved the name of Dagánowedá as the founder of the Confederacy, and the first lawgiver of the Hodénosaunee. It likewise points to the northern bank of the Gá-nun-ta-á, or Onondaga Lake, as the place where the council-fire was kindled, around which the wise-men of the different bands assembled; and where, after many days' debate, they succeeded in effecting a union of the nations. Their traditions further assert that the Confederacy, as established by this council, with its laws, rulers, and mode of administration, has come down to them through many generations with scarcely a change, except in the addition of a class of rulers called chiefs, the lowest in authority; and an essential modification of the law in relation to marriage.

*

In the councils of the nation, which were of frequent occurrence, all business of national concernment was transacted; and, although the questions moved on such occasions would be finally settled by the opinions of the sachems, yet such was the spirit of the Iroquois system of government, that the influence of the inferior chiefs, the warriors, and even of the women, would make itself felt, whenever the subject itself aroused a general public interest.

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Having confined the duties of sachems to civil matters by their organic law, it became necessary to provide a class of officers, in whom the military power might be vested. This was, in part, effected by the creation of fifty war-chiefships, simultaneously with the sachemships, with regulations, in relation to inheritance and investiture, mostly the same. By a novel provision, the subordination of the military to the civil power was prepetually indicated. To each sachem (Ho-yar-na-go-war), was assigned a