Recurring to the tribe, it was limited in the numbers of the people, feeble in strength, and poor in resources; but yet a completely organized society. It illustrates the condition of mankind in the Lower Status of barbarism. In the Middle Status there was a sensible increase of numbers in a tribe, and an improved condition; but with a continuance of gentile society without essential change. Political society was still impossible from want of advancement. The gentes organized into tribes remained as before; but confederacies must have been more frequent. In some areas, as in the Valley of Mexico, larger numbers were developed under a common government, with improvements in the arts of life; but no evidence exists of the overthrow among them of gentile society and the substitution of political. It is impossible to found a political society or a state upon gentes. A state must rest upon territory and not upon persons, upon the township as the unit of a political system, and not upon the gens which is the unit of a social system. It required time and a vast experience, beyond that of the American Indian tribes, as a preparation for such a fundamental change of systems. It also required men of the mental stature of the Greeks and Romans, and with the experience derived from a long chain of ancestors to devise and gradually introduce that new plan of government under which civilized nations are living at the present time.
Following the ascending organic series, we are next to consider the confederacy of tribes, in which the gentes, phratries and tribes will be seen in new relations. The remarkable adaptation of the gentile organization to the condition and wants of mankind, while in a barbarous state, will thereby be further illustrated.
CONFEDERACIES NATURAL GROWTHS.--FOUNDED UPON COMMON GENTES, AND A COMMON LANGUAGE.--THE IROQUOIS TRIBES.--THEIR SETTLEMENT IN NEW YORK.--FORMATION OF THE CONFEDERACY.--ITS STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES.--FIFTY SACHEMSHIPS CREATED.--MADE HEREDITARY IN CERTAIN GENTES.--NUMBER ASSIGNED TO EACH TRIBE.--THESE SACHEMS FORMED THE COUNCIL OF THE CONFEDERACY.--THE CIVIL COUNCIL.--ITS MODE OF TRANSACTING BUSINESS.--UNANIMITY NECESSARY TO ITS ACTION.--THE MOURNING COUNCIL.--MODE OF RAISING UP SACHEMS.--GENERAL MILITARY COMMANDERS.--THIS OFFICE THE GERM OF THAT OF A CHIEF EXECUTIVE MAGISTRATE.--INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY OF THE IROQUOIS.