n this regard, is indigenous and original. What
disquisitions have we not seen, that a certain Iroquois chief was in the
regular line of the chieftainship, by the father? whereas, it is clear,
that the son of a chief could never, in any case, succeed his father.
The descent ran, so to say, in the line of the queen-mother. If a chief
die, his brother, next in age, would succeed him. These failing, his
daughter's male children, if connected with the reigning totem, would
succeed. Her children constituted the chain of transmission; but the
heir to the chieftainship, whether by acknowledged succession, or by
choice in case of dispute or uncertainty, had his claims uniformly
submitted to a called council, and if approved, the sachem was regularly
installed to the office. Councils had this right from an early day, and
are known to have ever been very scrupulous and jealous in its
exercise, and continue to be so, at this time.

By the establishment of this law of descent, the evils of a hereditary
chieftainship were obviated. And the succession was kept in healthy
channels, by the right of the council to decide, in all cases, and to
set aside incompetent claimants. This right was so exercised, as to give
the nation the advantages of the elective power, and to avail itself of
all its talent.

We perceive in this system, an effective provision for breaking
dynasties, and securing at each mutation of the chieftainship, a fresh
line of chiefs, who were subject to a life limit. Each clan having the
same right to one chief, a perpetual, yet constantly changing body of
sachems, was kept up, which must necessarily change the body entirely in
one generation. Yet, like the classes in our senatorial organization,
the change was effected so slowly and gradually, that the body of chiefs
constituted a political perpetuity.

In contemplating this system, there is more than one point to admire.
History gives us no example of a confederacy in which the principle of
political and domestic union, were so intimately bound together. By the
establishment of the Totemic Bond, the clans were separated on the
principle of near kindred, between which all marriage was inhibited.
Every marriage between these separated clans, therefore, bound them
closer together, and the consequence soon must have been, their entire
amalgamation, had it not been provided, that each clan, through the
female line, should preserve inviolate forever, its own Totemic
indep