or Central Council of the Confederacy. Chiefs attended this
national assemblage, as delegates or representatives, although not
elected representatives, of their tribes. The number depended on
circumstances; and varied with the occasion. They were sent, or went, to
deliberate on a specific question, or questions, for which, the tribe
was summoned, by the Executive Sachem of the Nation holding the high
office of Attotarho,[C] or Convener of the Council. This central
council, headed by this kind of a Presidency, was in fact, more purely
democratic in its structure, than the home councils. It consisted
essentially of a Congress of Chiefs, having a right as chiefs to attend,
or delegated for the purpose, and aided also, by the warriors. It had
the character of being a representative national body, delegated for a
single session; and of a local body of life chiefs constituting the home
sachemry, or a limited senate.

[C] The corresponding word in the Seneca dialect is Tod-o-dah-hoh.

Such I apprehend to have been the structure of the Iroquois government.
It was strong, efficient and popular.--It had its fixity in the life
tenure of the chiefs and the customs of proceeding. The voice of the
warriors constituted a counterbalance, or species of second estate. But
practically, whatever the theory, the chief and warriors, acted as one
body. They came, generally, to advocate, or announce what had already
been decided on, in the body of the tribe.

It is evident, in viewing this scheme of a native federative
government, that its tendencies were always in favor of the power of the
separate tribes. No people ever existed, who watched more narrowly the
existence of power, and its innate tendency to centralize, and usurp.
Suspicious to a fault, their eyes and ears were ever open to the least
tone or gesture of alarm. They had only confided, to the Central
Council, the power to make war or peace, and to regulate public policy.
This Central Council, received embassies, not only from the numerous
nations with whom they warred; but the delegates of the crowns of France
and England, often stood in their presence.

The assent of each tribe is believed to have been requisite to an
alliance, or rupture. When this had been given at the central council,
it was explained before the local council, and the concurrence of the
body of the tribe, was essential to make it binding and effective. In
case of war, there was no fixed scale by which men we