In their religions the Americans paralleled the rest of mankind. Every religion derives its form and color from the mind of the worshippers, so that by their gods we may know them. From elevated natures emanate chaste and refined conceptions of the deity; from brutish natures coarse conceptions. Christianity is the highest and purest of all religions; but if we study the moral precepts of the foremost American nations, we shall see that in many respects they were not far behind, and were indeed in some instances in advance of Christianity. True, the Aztecs practised human sacrifice, with all its attendant horrors; but what were the religious wars, the expulsion of Jews, the slaughter of Infidels, the burning of heretics, but human sacrifice? Moreover, while we turn in horror from the sacrificial stone of the Aztecs, where the human victims were treated as gods and whence their souls were sent direct to Paradise, yet we find among them little of that most infamous of crimes—persecution for opinion's sake; nor yet do we read of their ingenuity being taxed for the contrivance of engines of the most excruciating torture, as we do in the history of Christianity. Tortures which, while killing the body, it was believed consigned the soul to eternal agonies.
There was little in the social or political systems of Europe of which the counterpart could not be found in America; indeed, the economical, social, and political condition of every civilization finds its counterpart in every other civilization; and there were institutions then existing in America at whose feet Europe might have sat with benefit.
AMERICAN ABORIGINALS.
Among the wilder tribes we find prevalent the patriarchal state, with its hundreds of languages and theologies; a slight advance from which are those associations of families banded for safety, thus presenting a state of society not unlike that of European feudalism. From this point, every quality and grade of government presents itself until full-blown monarchy is attained, where a sole sovereign becomes an emperor of nations with a state and severity equal to that of the most enlightened. The government of the Nashua nations, which was monarchical and nearly absolute, denotes no small progress from primordial patriarchy.
Like their cousins of Spain and England, the sovereigns of Mexico had their elaborate palaces, with magnificent surroundings, their country residence and their hunting-grounds, their botanical and zoological gardens, and their harems filled with the daughters of nobles, who deemed it an honor to see them thus royally defiled. There were aristocratic and knightly orders; nobles, plebeians, and slaves; pontiffs and priesthoods; land tenures and taxation; seminaries of learning, and systems of education, in which virtue was extolled and vice denounced; laws and law courts of various grades, and councils and tribunals of various kinds; military orders with drill, engineer corps, arms, and fortifications; commerce, caravans, markets, merchants, pedlers, and commercial fairs, with a credit system, and express and postal facilities.
They were not lacking in pleasures and amusements similar to those of the Europeans, such as feasts with professional jester, music, dancing; and after dinner the drama, national games, gymnastics, and gladiatorial combats. They were not without their intoxicating drink, delighting in drunkenness while denouncing it. Their medical faculty and systems of surgery they had, and their burial-men; also their literati, scholars, orators, and poets, with an arithmetical system, a calendar, a knowledge of astronomy, hieroglyphic books, chronological records, public libraries, and national archives.
The horoscope of infants was cast; the cross was lifted up; incense was burned; baptism and circumcision were practised. Whence arose these customs so like those of their fellow-men across the Atlantic, whom they had never seen or heard of?
The conquerors found all this when they entered the country. They examined with admiration the manufactures of gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead, wrought to exquisite patterns with surprising skill. They gazed with astonishment on huge architectural piles, on monumental remains speaking louder than words; on temples, causeways, fountains, aqueducts, and light-houses, surrounded as they were with statues and intricate and costly stone carvings. They found that the Americans made cloth, paper, pottery, and dyes, and were proficient in painting. Their mosaic feather-work was a marvel.
There are many points of interest, well worth examination, which I have not space here properly to mention. The interested reader, however, will find all material necessary to careful comparison in my [Native Races of the Pacific States]. He will there find described conditions of society analogous to feudalism and chivalry; he will find municipal governments, walled towns, and standing armies. There were legislative assemblies similar to that of the Cortes, and associations not unlike that of the Holy Brotherhood. To say that trial by combat sometimes occurred is affirming of them nothing complimentary; but upon the absence of some European institutions they were to be congratulated.
Although living lives of easy poverty, the wild tribes of America everywhere possessed dormant wealth enough to tempt the cupidity alike of the fierce Spaniard, the blithe Frenchman, and the sombre Englishman. Under a burning tropical sun, where neither meat nor clothing was essential to comfort, the land yielded gold, while in hyperborean forests where no precious metals were discovered the richest peltries abounded; so that no savage in all this northern continent was found so poor that grasping civilization could find nothing to rob him of.