“But these political institutions, however defective, did not exist among all the American tribes. The system of government adopted by some of them approximated more closely the system which prevails in civilized communities. Thus, “among the Natchez, a powerful tribe, (now extinct,) formerly situated on the banks of the Mississippi, a difference of rank took place with which the Northern tribes were altogether unacquainted. Some families were reputed noble, and enjoyed hereditary dignity. The body of the people was considered as vile, and formed only for subjection. This distinction was marked by appellations which intimated the high elevation of the one state, and the ignominious depression of the other. The former were called respectable; the latter the stinkards. The great chief, in whom the supreme authority was vested, was reputed to be a being of a superior nature—the brother of the sun, the sole object of their worship. They approached this great chief with religious veneration, and honoured him as the representative of their deity. His will was law, to which all submitted with implicit obedience. The lives of his subjects were so absolutely at his disposal, that if any one had incurred his displeasure, the offender came with profound humility and offered him his head. Nor did the dominion of the Chiefs end with their lives: their principal officers, their favourite wives, together with many domestics of inferior rank, were sacrificed at their tombs, that they might be attended in the next world by the same persons who served them in this; and such was the reverence in which they were held, that those victims welcomed death with exultation, deeming it a recompence of their fidelity and a mark of distinction, to be selected to accompany their deceased master. Thus a perfect despotism, with its full train of superstition arrogance and cruelty, was established among the Natchez; and by a singular fatality, that people tasted of the worst calamities incident to polished nations, though they themselves were not far advanced beyond the tribes around them in civility and improvement.”[27]
In the political institutions of the Natchez, however despotic and imperfect they may be considered, we discover a bond of union which did not exist among other tribes who trusted for subsistence to hunting and fishing without any species of cultivation. Their wants were few and simple; they therefore formed into separate tribes, and acted together from instinct or habit rather than from any formal concert or contract. Hence their political institutions were as simple as their wants; and hardly any appearance of regular government could be discerned among them.
From the foregoing statements it may be inferred that the political institutions of the American Indians arise from the peculiarity of their condition. Their military tactics, their form of government, their peculiar religious opinions, and their unconquerable spirit of revenge, all spring out of their peculiar state of semi-civilization. That the circumstances around them determine the character of their political and other institutions will be fully proved by us when we come to speak of the efforts of the Quakers in civilizing the Oneidas and Senecas of the Five Nations. The Socialist will readily perceive how the foregoing statements, respecting the political institutions of the American Aborigines confirm and illustrate the truth of his principles.
Of the Military Tactics of the North American Indians.
There are two motives which stimulate savage nations to war; these are interest and revenge. The latter operates with a fierceness among rude nations, unknown among civilized people. The desire of vengeance is the first and almost only principle which the savage instils into the mind of his children. This grows with his growth and strengthens with his strength, and acquires a force and a preponderance over all other passions, which causes it to resemble the instinctive rage of a tiger or hyæna. “When under the dominion of this passion,” says Robertson, “man becomes the most cruel of all animals. He neither pities, nor forgives, nor spares. The force of this passion is so well understood by the Americans themselves, that they always apply to it in order to excite the people to take up arms. If the elders of any tribe attempt to rouse their youth from sloth, if a chief wishes to allure a band of warriors to follow him in invading an enemy’s country, the most persuasive topics of their martial eloquence are drawn from revenge. ‘The bones of our countrymen,’ say they, ‘lie uncovered; their bloody bed has not been washed clean. Their spirits cry against us; they must be appeased. Let us go and devour the people by whom they were slain. Sit no longer inactive upon your mats; lift the hatchet, console the spirits of the dead, and tell them that they shall be avenged.’”
Animated with such exhortations, the youth snatch their arms in a transport of fury, raise the song of war, and burn with impatience to embrue their hands in the blood of their enemies. Private chiefs assemble small parties, and invade a hostile tribe, without consulting the rulers of the community. A single warrior, prompted by caprice or revenge, will take the field alone, and march several hundred miles to surprise and cut off a straggling enemy. The exploits of a noted warrior, in such solitary excursions, often form the chief part in the history of an American campaign; and their elders connive at such irregular sallies, as they tend to cherish a martial spirit, and accustom their people to enterprise and danger.[28] But when a war is national, and undertaken by public authority, the deliberations are formal and slow. The elders assemble; they deliver their opinions in solemn speeches; they weigh with maturity the nature of the enterprise, and balance its beneficial or disadvantageous consequences with no inconsiderable portion of political discernment or sagacity. Their priests and soothsayers are consulted, and sometimes they ask even the advice of their women.[29] If the determination be for war, they prepare for it with much ceremony. A leader offers to conduct the expedition, and is accepted. But no man is constrained to follow him; the resolution of the community to commence hostilities, imposes no obligation upon any member to take part in the war. Each individual is still master of his own conduct, and his engagement in the service is perfectly voluntary.[30]
The maxims, by which they regulate their military operations, though extremely different from those which take place in more civilized and populous nations, are well suited to their own political state, and the nature of the country in which they act. They never take the field in numerous bodies, as it would require a greater effort of foresight and industry, than is usual among savages, to provide for their subsistence during a march of some hundred miles through dreary forests, or during a long voyage upon their lakes and rivers. Their armies are not encumbered with baggage or military stores. Each warrior, besides his arms, carries his mat and a small bag of pounded maize, and with these, is completely equipped for any service. While at a distance from the enemy’s frontier, they disperse through the woods, and support themselves with the game which they kill, or the fish which they catch. As they approach nearer the territories of the nation which they intend to attack, they collect their troops, and advance with great caution. Even in their hottest and most active wars, they proceed wholly by stratagem and ambuscade. They place not their glory in attacking their enemies with open force. To surprize and destroy is the greatest merit of a commander, and the highest pride of his followers. War and hunting are his only occupations, and they conduct both with the same spirit and the same arts. They follow the track of their enemies through the forest. They endeavour to discover their haunts; they lurk in some thicket near to these, and, with the patience of sportsmen lying in wait for game, will continue in their station day after day, until they can rush upon their prey when most secure, and least able to resist them. If they meet no straggling party of the enemy, they advance towards their villages, but with such solicitude to conceal their own approach, that they often creep on their hands and feet through the woods, and paint their skins of the same colour as the withered leaves, in order to avoid detection.[31] If so fortunate as to remain unobserved, they set on fire the enemy’s huts in the dead of night, and massacre the inhabitants, as they fly naked and defenceless from the flames. If they hope to effect a retreat without being pursued, they carry off some prisoners whom they reserve for a more dreadful fate. But if, notwithstanding all their address and precautions, they find that their motions are discovered, that the enemy has taken the alarm, and is prepared to oppose them, they usually deem it most prudent to retire. They regard it as extreme folly to meet an enemy who is on his guard, upon equal terms, or to give battle in an open field. The most distinguished success is a disgrace to a leader if it has been purchased with any considerable loss of his followers; and they never boast of a victory, if stained with the blood of their own countrymen.[32] To fall in battle, instead of being reckoned an honourable death, is a misfortune which subjects the memory of a warrior to the imputation of rashness or imprudence.[33]
Buchanan in his Sketches of the North American Indians, speaking of the military tactics of the Five Nations observes, “Previous to setting out on any warlike expedition they have a feast, to which all the noted warriors of the nation are invited; when they have their war-dance to the beat of kettle drums. The warriors are seated on two rows; each rises in turn, and sings the deeds he has performed; so that they work up their spirits to a high degree of enthusiasm. They come to these dances with faces painted in a frightful manner, to make themselves look terrible to their enemies. By these war-songs they preserve the history of their great achievements. The solemn reception of these warriors, and the acclamation of applause which they receive at their return, cannot but have on the hearer the same effect in raising an emulation for glory, that a triumph had on the old Romans. After their prisoners are secured they never offer them the least bad treatment, but on the contrary, will rather starve themselves than suffer them to want; and I have been always assured that there is not one instance of their offering the least violence to the chastity of any woman that was their captive. The captives are generally distributed among those who have lost a member of their family in battle: if they are accepted, they enjoy all the privileges which the person had; but if otherwise, they die in torment to satiate the revenge of those who refuse them.
“They use neither drum nor trumpet, nor any kind of musical instruments in their wars; their throats serve them on all occasions. We find the same was practised by Homer’s heroes:—
‘Thrice to its pitch, his lofty voice he rears,