F 
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 'S.K.B.lTOB'rH. 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 OUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 ( 1881-1882) 
 
 BY CHARLES HAWLEY, D. D. 
 
 OF AUBURN, N. Y. 
 
FOURTH AND FIFTH 
 
 ANNUAL ADDRESSES 
 
 1881 AND 1882 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 Cayuga Co. Historical Society 
 
 BV CHARLES I^AWI.EY, D. I). 
 
 President pf the Society. 
 
 Reprinted from Collections of C. C. II. S., No. 2. 
 
 AUBURN, N. Y 
 I 882. 
 

 KNAPP & PECK, 
 Book, Job and Commercial Piintersr 
 
 Auburn, N. Y. 
 
 BY rPf«VSPER. 
 
 JUN 3 1910 
 
 
<i 
 
 <-< 
 
 FOURTfl ANNUAL ADDRESS 
 
 ^ BY THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 February /TH, 1881, 
 
ADDEESS 
 
 It is to History, in regard to dignity and authority, that Lord 
 Bacon assigns the pre-eminent place among human writings. 
 " For, to its fidelity are intrusted the examples of our ances- 
 tors ; the vicissitudes of things ; the foundations of civil pol- 
 icy and the name and reputation of men." "But," he adds, 
 " the difficulty is no less than the dignity. For to carry the 
 mind in writing into the past and bring it into sympathy 
 with antiquity ; diligently to examine ; freely and faithfully 
 to report, and by the light of words to place, as it were, be- 
 fore the eyes, the revolutions of time ; the chai-acters of per- 
 sons ; the courses and currents of actions, is a task of great 
 labor and judgment rather because in ancient transactions 
 the truth is difficult to ascertain, and in modern, it is danger- 
 ous to tell." 
 
 All that is here said of the dignity and difficulty attend- 
 ing historical memoirs, applies with force to the purposes of 
 our organization ; for it is only as local history is ample 
 and accurate that the material exists, to give general history 
 either dignity or value. It is, moreover, no easy task, as I 
 hardly need remind you, to keep up a vigorous historical so- 
 ciety, especially in a community so youthful, comparatively, 
 as our own — not yet having completed its first century. We 
 may have been too busy making, history to think much of 
 collecting its annals, and too near, perhaps, the generation 
 that opened -for us through the wilderness the path of civili- 
 zation, fully to appreciate their work. 
 
6 FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 At the best, however, we can hardly expect any thing- 
 like popular enthusiasm in the slow and patient endeavor to 
 garner the materials of history. We must still be content 
 with the active enlistment of the comparatively few, whose 
 tastes lead them in this direction, or who place some proper 
 estimate upon the future value of such labors. The number 
 possessed with the true historic spirit, is sm;ill, and they are 
 fewer still 'A^ho have both the inclination and the means, 
 with the leisure, to gratify it. I do not know that we have 
 even one among our forty or fifty members, who ranks as an 
 entliuslast in such matters ; while it is not too much to say 
 that the body of our membership is in hearty and growing- 
 sympathy with the objects which the Society has in charge. 
 With our present numbers we have been able thus far, to 
 maintain a healthy organization, and have much to show for 
 our laborvS. But in the growing demands of the work, we 
 would be much encouraged and helped by larger co-operation 
 on the part of our citizens, who have with us a common in- 
 terest in what we aim to accomplish. We need, perhaps, 
 to be less modest in urging our claims as a Society upon the 
 public favor, and more diligent in personal solicitation, to 
 increase our membership. These claims are easily recog- 
 nized. The work entrusted to the Society must commend 
 itself to every intelligent citizen throughout the County. 
 Whatever is valuable in our various enterprises, religious, 
 social or industrial, and whatever of benefit has accrued from 
 them, it is the province of this Society to rescue from obliv- 
 ion, and embalm in the memories and gratitude of men. 
 What has thus been worth doing, is worth}^ such preserva- 
 tion, and what was not so well worth doing— all of fact and inci- 
 dent which reveal the weaker side of human nature and even 
 the worst side of human life^ — alike serves the purposes of im- 
 partial history. There may be wisdom as well as warning 
 to be gathered from the errors and mistakes of those who 
 
FOIIRTPI ANNUAL ADDRESS. 7 
 
 have preceded us. History is a good tonic for that morbid 
 despondency which despairs of the times and laments the 
 "good ohl (hiys," never to return. Its atmosphere is healthy 
 and bracing; and though it disrobe the past of the enchant- 
 ment which distance of time no less than of space, lends to 
 the view, it serves also to present the real and the true in 
 forms most instructive and striking. It is this large teaching 
 of human experience gathered from the wi<lest fields of hu- 
 man action, that is the province of history ; and he who 
 studies its lessons most devoutly, is best furnished to act well 
 his part in all that concerns present duty. 
 
 As for our own immediate field of in(piir3^ as a Society, 
 the more we work it, the richer we find it in historic wealth. 
 By means of researches made within the last three or four 
 years, and mainly under the auspices of the Society, we have 
 come into larger knowledge of the people who held this 
 ground for centuries preceding its settlement by the white 
 man, and have traced the presence among them of the first 
 Europeans who ever trod this soil ; the object and various 
 motives which impelled the adventurers, their heroism and 
 their failure, and have become familiar with some of the 
 scenes of one of the gi-eat dramas of history, enacted within 
 the limits of our own county, along its lakes, which are still 
 the pride and beauty of the region, and hy the very stream 
 that flows through and has created our cit^^ whose banks 
 resound with the industries wliich have rendered Auburn 
 famous in distant parts of the woi'ld, for invention and intelli- 
 gent enterprise. 
 
 It would ap})ear, at first thought, that the early settlement 
 of a region like this could liave had little in common with 
 its present condition. We look back almost a hundred 
 years, since a new civilization took possession of this terri- 
 tory. The aboriginal race had hardly been dispossessed of the 
 soil, when single families without concert, only a common 
 
8 FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 impulse uo belter their condition, began to find their way 
 thither from the Eastern States and the Eastern portion of 
 this State ; and vsoon neighborhoods are formed and com- 
 pacted, followed by villages as centers of trade and the arts 
 of life ; and these, where fortunately located with facilities for 
 growtli, becoming prosperous cities, until the whole scene 
 changes from semi-barbarous life to cultured and progressive 
 society. 
 
 The difference in some aspects is great. There is an 
 indescribable fascination at this distance^ of time in the story 
 of pioneer life, often as it may be rehearsed. Its dangers, 
 privations and hardships over against the security and 
 comfort and plenty in which we dwell, invest it with a 
 romantic, often heroic interest. The contrast it presents to 
 all modern improvement in the face of the country ; in 
 dwellings, churches, public buildings, stores, manufactories 
 and whole social and industi'ial economy, is very wide. But 
 in all that makes up the ground work of life, they stood on 
 the same footing on which we stand to-day. They were as 
 liapp}', as contented, and as successful, in their straitened con- 
 ditions, as are the people who succeed them. That they were 
 wiser oi- more virtuous, is not to be claimed. The vague 
 impression sometimes cherished of the superior goodness of a 
 past generation, is one which a closer knowledge often dissi- 
 pates, and we learn that human nature retains its character- 
 istics amid all external chan&;es. The more we know of what 
 has been, the more pertinent the advice of th^ wise man : "Say 
 not then, what is the cause that the former days are better than 
 these; for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this." The 
 people of former days lived and acted in their circumstances, 
 very much like the })eople of the present day. If they appear 
 to have practiced the more homely and frugal virtues to our 
 disparagement, I am disposed to think it was from necessity 
 rather than choice. They were as extravagant in all direc- 
 
FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 9 
 
 tions as their means would permit. Tliey songlit pleasure 
 and personal gratification by the methods open to them. 
 They were no more temperate or sell-denying, no more strict 
 in their morals or piety than the same classes of persons now. 
 They were open to aspersions among themselves for their pride 
 and ostentation and factitious social distinctions, quite like 
 those to which we are accustomed. 
 
 A curious instance of this I find in a pamphlet which 
 recently fell into my hands, printed by an indignant citizen 
 of Auburn in the year 1828, some fifty-three years ago. It 
 is a vigorons protest at what the writer deemed a most unjust 
 abridgement of the liberty of speech, because he was not 
 permitted on occasions of public worship, to ventilate some 
 ver}^ sincere though singular opinions. After repeated 
 attempts at such interruption of religious service, from which 
 he could not be persuaded to desist, he was arrested and 
 convicted in a civil court, though for prudential reasons the 
 penalty for the offence was not exacted. In his appeal to 
 the public against the rank injustice, he is very severe upon 
 both the churches and ministers for their gross departure 
 from the simplicity of Gospel truth and Christian life, — 
 notably St. Peter's, then under the rectorship of the gentle 
 and scholarly Dr. Rudd, and the First Presbyterian still 
 favpred with the pastorate of the fervid and eloquent Dr. 
 Lansing. He arraigns these two congregations, before the bar 
 of public opinion on several distinct charges ; but what is 
 particularlv noticeable is the onslaught he makes upon their 
 " pompous, costly and gorgeous church edifices ; furnished 
 with luxurious and unseemly extravagance, shutting out 
 the poor, and even driving them into dissipation and infi- 
 delity ;" and last of all upon the profan(!^ntrusion of choir 
 singing in divine worship with tunes more fitting the stage 
 than the house of God. Indeed, thought I, while reading 
 these things, and more of the same sort, are these the good 
 
10 FOURTH ANNLTAL ADDRESS. 
 
 old da3^s of pious simplicity T have heard so much about, and 
 from which we have so far degenerated? It sounded so much 
 like an echo of the talk of to-day, that I confess it was some 
 relief to know that church extravagance with fashionable, 
 operatic church music, did not originate with this wayward 
 generation, but belonged likewise to those gracious times ! 
 
 In truth, all these things are to be judged relatively to 
 time and circumstance, while a just comparison drawn 
 between the Auburn of 1828 and the Auburn of 1881, 
 would not only show what is so patent to all, this increase 
 of material prosperity, but reveal at the same time a substan- 
 tial improvement even in those aspects in which modern 
 society is thought to be most open to criticism. 
 
 I met, only the other day, with a^n article in an English 
 review, which illustrates in this precise way, social progress 
 in this country. The writer is an American who has spent 
 the large part of his life abroad, and on revisiting his native 
 New England village, compares its present condition with 
 his memories of it fifty 3^ears ago. He reproduces with a 
 picturesque vividness, the quaint little town, built on two 
 streets which crossed at right angles, giving it the name of 
 " The Four Corners," with its rival church edifices, two in 
 number, and both innocent of comfort, much less of luxury ; 
 its small one story district school house, and more statel}' 
 academy ; its ugly, yellow-painted town house, where all 
 matters of local government and general politics were dis- 
 cussed and settled, and its taverns and miscellaneous stores, 
 where citizens commonl)^ spent their evenings to talk and 
 drink over the events of the day. Drinking was universal, 
 and liquor selling the most profitable branch of business. 
 Nothing could l^ft done withont the aid of rum, not even the 
 holding of an ecclesiastical conference as the old account 
 books show, without a Dlentiful supply. The annual militia 
 muster which combined the pomp of war with the gaiety of a 
 
FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 11 
 
 liolida}^, was the principal aniusoineiit. The people lived 
 very plainly ; wei-e iiubistrious and frugal if not tenri{)erate, 
 while there wa.s an educated class, who would have done 
 honor to the most cultivated society of the time. 
 
 This was the village as pictured in the memory of the 
 non-resident American, who returns a half a centur}' later, 
 to find it a thi-iving railway centre, its streets adorned with 
 choice shade trees and lighted with gas ; its dwellings and 
 public buildings greatly improved in comfort and architec- 
 ture, with no signs of jK^vert}', but api)arent thrift every 
 where and comparative luxury. There was not a liquor 
 shojD in the town, but instead a savings bank, a free public 
 library, several literary societies, with stated courses of pop 
 ular and scientific lectures. Religion and culture had kept 
 pace with material progi'ess and the change from lifty years 
 before, was as striking as it is suggestive. 
 
 But what makes the testimon}^ of this writer the more 
 interesting is. that to him, his native village was onh^ an 
 illustration of similar changes which met him ever}^ where, 
 indicating the social progress of the country within that 
 period, the exceptional instances being largely due to foreign 
 ideas, customs and influences, the tendency of which is to 
 bring down the general standing of intelligence and morals. 
 
 The value of our historical literature, as I have said, 
 depends on its fidelity to truth. The nan-ative may be 
 colored by prejudice, without violence to the facts. The 
 coloring will be easily detected ; and the philosophy can be 
 separated horn the substance of the history. I know of 
 nothing more readable or trustworthy in natural history 
 than the facts which Mr. Darwin has gathered and arrange<l 
 out of the life and habit of tlie whole animal kingdom to 
 sustain his peculiar theory of evolution. But though I con- 
 fide in the candor and fidelity to existing facts, characteristic 
 of that eminent naturalist, must I therefore accept his theory 
 
12 FOUETH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 of the origin of man ? We know beforehand that it is not 
 the matter-of-fact world, whitlier the novelist or the drama- 
 tist would take us as we surrender to the fascination ; but an 
 ideal world into which his imagination transports, us and we 
 enjoy the excursion the more for that very reason. History 
 is separated from Eomance by sharp and rigid lines ; and 
 these are becoming more and more distinct. The ready 
 belief once accorded to whatever assumed the dignity of 
 historical narrative, has passed away. Much of the earlier 
 Grecian and Roman history proves to be legendary and fab- 
 ulous. It is not very long since the story of Romulus was 
 scarcely less questioned in our schools, than the landing of 
 the Pilgrims at Plymouth, or the Declaration of Indepen 
 dence. All ancient historical writers once stood upon the 
 same footing and were regarded as equally credible. All 
 parts of the same author were supposed to rest upon the 
 same authority. A blind, indiscriminate faith, — acquies- 
 cence rather than belief — embraced equally and impartially 
 the whole range of ancient story, setting aside perhaps those 
 prodigies which passed for embellishment to relieve the 
 otherwise tedious narrative. 
 
 But all this is changed. The present century, if it did not 
 give birth to, has largely developed, a new science, the 
 science of historical criticism which has revolutionized the 
 study and whole groundwork of history. It has reversed at 
 many points the views once held of the nations and races of the 
 ancient world. A new antiquity may be said to have been 
 reared out of the old ; and while very much that was unreal 
 has vanished at the touch of the critic's wand, a fresh revela- 
 tion has taken its place. I would not say that the destructive 
 criticism which has made havoc with long accepted beliefs, 
 has not erred on that side. The tendency, as is quite natu- 
 ral, has doubtless been to the extreme, where there was so 
 mu^h rubbish to be cleared away. But this is a tendency 
 
FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 18 
 
 whit'li takes care of itself in the long run : and the new 
 fabric with fairer propi^rtions and tii'iiier foundations is sure 
 to rise out of the fratrnients of discarded systems vvlietiicr of 
 philoso];)hy or fact. 
 
 The spirit of ci'itical ii;([uirv. lio\v(^ver, is just now most 
 active in arcliccologii-al research, involving the distribution 
 of races over the globe, relative priority of occupation and 
 so the antiipiity and origin of man. On such a broad and 
 obscure Held of investigation, and entered upon so recently, 
 we must wait with patience for definite reh,ults. Some start- 
 ling opinions have fiom time to time been given out with 
 no little assurance, which later developments have shown 
 were hasty if not groundless. Nothing has as yet been 
 brought to light which justilies the belief that man existed 
 prior to the human period as defined in the first chapters of 
 Genesis, confessedly the most ancient writing in the world, and 
 which as Bunsen says, has no appearance of exaggerating 
 its own antiquity. Assuming that it gives the true origin 
 of man, there was no need of interminable ages for his devel- 
 op)ment ; and the children of the men who built the ark and 
 the tower of Babel could build Thebes, Memphis, and the Pyr- 
 amids, within the time which the received chronology allows 
 between the flood and the era of these monuments. As 
 early in the book of Genesis as the fourth chapter, mention 
 is made of the invention of instruments of music, of artificers 
 in brass and iron, and certairdy such a structure as the Ark 
 is described to have been, implies an advanced state of the 
 mechanical arts. The immediate descendents of Noah, built 
 cities and founded mighty empires. The men of Shinar 
 knew how to buikl stupendous fabrics of V)rick and mortar. 
 If then we receive this Book of Genesis as a true though 
 concise history of the antediluvian world, we have the data 
 to account for the early development of human art, without 
 recourse to undefined and fabulous ages in which man crept 
 
14 FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 from kiashi[) with the brute, to dominion over the earth. 
 The theory^ that tlie human race began its existence at the 
 lowest stage of barbarism, is neither demanded nor warranted 
 by any known facts. On the otiier hand, the evidence is, 
 that barbarism, wherever found, is a decline from a previous 
 state of civilizaticm. 
 
 The most remote races whose histoiy can only be gathered 
 from their graves, their habitations and implements, by no 
 means indicate primitive man to have been the rude creature 
 some would make him. The pre-historic men, of whom we 
 know any thing, appear to have been the superiors in physi- 
 cal structure, an<l mental power, if the skull is any measure 
 of comparison, and in the arts of life, to some later peoples, 
 wliose histoi'v is known. The oldest human skulls as yet 
 found are among the largest, and indicate if not a highly 
 cultivated, certainly a powerful race of men, confirming the 
 earliest scripture records that there were giants in those 
 days; -and may, for all evidence to the contrary, belong to 
 no older period than the antediluvian times when ''the 
 wickedness of man was exceeding great upon the earth." All 
 this is against the idea of a progressive development of man 
 from an inferior origin. 
 
 It would appear, moreover, that the same general features 
 belong to this pre-historic civilization, wherever it is traced 
 in any part of the world. Similar implements, weapons 
 and utensils of the same materials and general style of man- 
 ufacture, indicate its general supremacy. In modes of arch- 
 itecture for dwellings and for military defence, the differences 
 are no greater than those which now belong, in the same 
 regard, to essentially the same grades of civilized life. The 
 men of the Stone Age, who occupied the old world and 
 passed away before the dawn of history, were very like the 
 people in possession of this continent when first discovered 
 
FOUHTII ANNUAL ADDRESS. 15 
 
 by the Europeans.' Tlie same fonn of the (liiit^arrow, the 
 same style of stone hatchet found in the graves of the 
 unknown warriors of the pre-historie raee that occupied 
 Britian and France, were the wea[)ons in use by the North 
 American Indian when tii-st known to the white man; while 
 in the then unexplored mounds of the lower Mississippi and 
 the valley of the Ohio, extending into parts of Western New 
 York, lay concealed the relics of a people who had preceded 
 the tribes then in possession of the New Woi-ld. These 
 ancient mounds have since yieldfil some of their tivasures to 
 the archifiologist, leaving little doubt of the close affinity 
 between those who built them in [ihysical character, in tlieir 
 habits, social institutions and religious beliefs with the pre- 
 historic men of the old world. They worked not oidy in 
 stone an<l clay but also in copper and silver, as seen from 
 their implements, utensils and ornaments. They were ac- 
 quainted with the rich mineral deposites along the banks of 
 Lake Superior as attested by ancient excavations in which 
 ai'e found the stone mauls and picks and decayed wooden 
 shovels of these ancient miners. They were not only tillers 
 of the soil, but give ])roof of ai'tistic skill as weavers, potters, 
 and to some extent workei's in metals, while the monuments 
 they have left behind indicate industry and power. In no 
 respect, however, do they seem to have been the superior of 
 the })e.oples who succeeded them, in their weapons, or many 
 of their implements, though doubtless the ruder forms 
 of these may have survived, while the more skillful and del- 
 icate products mav have mouldered and perished. Their 
 mound-village sites, from which their habitations and 
 defences have disappeared, with their sacrificial burial places, 
 sufficiently distinguish them fi'om the roving and unsettled 
 
 1 See " Foseil Men and their Modern RepresentativeB," in which Ihc author, Prin- 
 cipal Dawsion, of the McGill University, has done most excellent service in employing 
 existing information as to Americ;in Races, " to illustrate and explain conditions long 
 since passed away in the Eastern Continent." 
 
16 FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 tribes who disputed with them their ancient possessions. Dr. 
 Wilson in his " Pre-historic Man " gives an illustration of an 
 ancient burial place discovered near Brockville, C. " Here 
 were l)uried about fourteen feet below the surface, twenty 
 skeletons, arranged in a circle with their feet toward the 
 centre. Some of the skeletons were of gigantic proportions, 
 but their bones had well nigh crumbled into dust. With 
 these were found well made spears and chisels of native 
 copper, stone chisels, gouges and flint arrow heads, and a 
 curious terracotta mask resembling the heads on the 
 earthen vessels of the mound-builders." This correspomis, 
 says Dr. Dawson, with the old Alleghan modes of interment, in 
 the South west, where the skeletons are found in the same 
 position, and often with an earthen vessel, bearing the repre- 
 sentation of a human face at the head of each, for food or 
 water, even as David discovered his enemy Saul asleep in 
 the trench with the spear and cruise at his bolster.'-' On our 
 own Fort Hill, before devoteil to its present uses, a number 
 of skeletons were found similarly grouped in a circle, placed 
 in death as warriors would lie with their feet to the watch 
 lire — a mode of burial peculiar to the mound-builders. 
 
 That the commanding earth-work which crowns Fort Hill,^ 
 belongs to a period which antedates the occupation of this 
 region by the Iroquois, is generally conceded. A similar 
 ro.ound enclosure on an elevation, near where the rail-road 
 crosses North Street, only still more marked, is remembered 
 by the older inhabitants, as encircling some three or four 
 acres. The whole has since been levelled by the plow and 
 is under cultivation. It was the site of an ancient fortified 
 town and abounds in interesting relics. Here are found 
 the most ancient forms of the disc hammer,'' characteristic 
 
 2 " Fossil Men. etc." p. 60. 
 
 3 See Fig. 4 in the series of illustrations, in Mr. Wheeler's paper, "Inventors and In- 
 ventions of Cayuga Co., N. Y.," which forms a part of this volume. 
 
 * Id. Fig. 7 b. 
 
FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 17 
 
 of the Stone Age, also the simplest type of the arrow head, 
 small and triangular,' without the notches at the base, after 
 the pattern which Nilsson and others give as used by the 
 Flint folk of Earo})e ; fragments of pottery in profusion, 
 ornamentud with various tracings and indentations ; the stone 
 pipe of quite elaborate forms, and similar indications of a very 
 ancient civilization. Only such things as are of imperishable 
 material, survive to tell of the life and customs of the people, 
 who had chosen for their abode a spot commanding one of 
 the most extended and charming prospects in the vicinity of 
 our fair city. No tradition gives any clue as to the date of its 
 occupation. It was evidently not known to the French Jesuit 
 Fathers, who have given us the earliest records of this 
 region, (1656-1684), and who locate with special distinctness 
 the Cayuga villages as they then existed. But though pre-his- 
 toric in its origin and fate, it would not be difficult for the 
 antiquarian to restore it in sketch to the eye, as it appeared 
 when it was the centre of life and power. In the vicinity, 
 stood some years since, as I am informed, a mound of earth, 
 which when levelled was found to contain a large number 
 of skeletons, many of which were pierced with arrow heads 
 still fast in the bones, showing that these warriors fell in 
 battle, doubtless in defence of the town, in the struggle 
 between fierce and rival peoples for the mastery of this 
 ground. 
 
 It seems to have been the fate of all aboriginal popula- 
 tions, in Asia and Europe, as well as on the Nortli American 
 continent, at one time or another, to be thus dispossessed of 
 the soil, and to fade away before some superior race. Wlien 
 first known to the explorers of the country, the Indian tribes 
 occupying the territory now covered by the State of New 
 York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, together with a poi-tion of 
 
 5 " Inventors aad Inventions, etc.," Fig. 5. The hand hanmier and the arrow heads 
 thus illustrated were found on the ancient site referred to in the text. 
 
18 FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRKSS. 
 
 Canada, were grouped into leagues or confederacies, both for 
 defence and aggression, with little or no apparent advantage 
 of the one over the other. Indeed, from some cause, there 
 appears to have been such adjustment of limits and relations 
 as civilized nations have found necessary to preserve the 
 balance of power. The Iroquois tive nations better known 
 from their geographical position and their prominence in the 
 early history of the country, were at that time liemmed iu on 
 all sides by such powerful neighbors as the Hurons, the 
 Neuters and the Eries on the north and west, and on the 
 south and east by the Susquehannas or Andastes, and the 
 Mohicans. It was not until after settlements were made by 
 the French in Canada, and the Dutch, followed by the 
 Enghsh, in New York, that the Iroquois confederacy evinced 
 that spirit of conquest which distinguishes them and made 
 their name a terror from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. It 
 would appear that the ambition which knew no bounds to 
 aggression, and has won for them the title of the " Eomans 
 of the west," was suddenly stimulated by the presence of the 
 European, as it was afterwards materially helped by his 
 counsels and superior arms, so that within a period of less 
 than thirty years beginning with the destruction of the 
 Hurons in 1649, they had swept from the territory I have 
 indicated, these rival confederacies, or held them in subjec- 
 tion as their conquerors. 
 
 This proved an immense factor in the problem of the new 
 civilization and paved the way for its solution. It simpli- 
 fied, at the outset, the relations of the several colonies, 
 French, Dutch and English, with the natives, and centered 
 every important question of mutual interest, policy, or 
 treaty, in the grand council chamber at Onondaga, the capi- 
 tal of the Iroquois confederacy. It moreover gave, in the 
 distribution of powers, to single cantons particular jurisdic- 
 tion over conquered territor}^ Thus when Sir William Penn 
 
FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 19 
 
 would extend the limits of liis colony bj the ])urcliase of a 
 portion of the lands wrested by conquest from the Susque- 
 hannas, he was refused by Orehaoue, the great Cayuga war 
 chief, who subsequently made over that same land to the 
 English, at Albany, by treaty, thus determining the boun- 
 dary line between Pennsylvania and New York. And sixty 
 or seventy years later, when the Moravian Brethren would 
 establish a mission site on the bank of the Susquehanna, 
 consent must first be obtained from one of the successors of 
 Orehaoue, and scarcely less distinguished Cayuga chief, 
 Togai)a()ae. Thus, also, Shikellimy, father of the celebrated 
 Logan, though an Oneida, by adojition, but married to the 
 daughter of a Cajaiga sachem, was made a ruler over a rem- 
 nant of the conquered Shawnees, and other tribes at Sham- 
 okin on the Susquehanna — an instance of the Iroquois policy 
 of constituting a sort of vice-gerency over all subjugated 
 tribes. 
 
 For a hundred years the Five Nations played this conspic- 
 uous part in events which were slowly and surely con- 
 spiring toward one result ; and their final overthrow became 
 one of those necessities of history for which there is no rem- 
 edy. They sought, in their pride and bravery, to maintain 
 their position and prestige in the strife between French and 
 English for their alliance and so for the suprcmiicy ; and 
 deluded themselves with the fiction that they were indepen- 
 dent of either. But with all their craft, the eloquence of 
 their orators, the diplomacy of their sachems and the j'lrowess 
 of their warriors, it was as inevitable as destiny itself, that 
 they in turn should come to the same fate wdiich they had 
 meted to others. It was in the necessit}^ of events that their 
 fortunes should be linked to one or the other of the two con- 
 tending powders for the empire of the continent, and not less 
 a necessity of their geographical position as w^ell. And no 
 sooner had thev broken their earliest alliances, discarded the 
 
20 FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 French, and driven the missionary Fathers from their can- 
 tons, than we find them nailing up, in their villages, the 
 arras of the Duke of York as a token of their allegiance to 
 the English. The war of the Revolution, nearly a century 
 afterward, found them simple dependencies to the crown of 
 Great Britian ; and they fell with the downfall of British 
 sovereignty over the colonies. What the final result would 
 have been, had the Iroquois five nations combined with the 
 French, and against English colonization, we may hardly 
 conjecture. It is easy, however, to see that such an alliance 
 would have postponed, if it would not have prevented the 
 establishment of liberty in the new world. But let us not 
 forget to do justice to that feature of the French policy 
 which would win the alliance of these fierce nations by the 
 arts of persuasion and of peace. The Jesuit Father in the 
 simplicity of his faith and with the heroism of his order, 
 sought the conversion of the Indian, while not indifferent to 
 the motive of winning his allegiance to the crown of France. 
 It was the Catholic policy, then, as now, to convert the 
 '• savage," not more for the sake of bringing him into the 
 Church, than of incorporating him into the State. Even in 
 the overturn of the Iroquois missions, numbers of their con- 
 verts were persuaded by the Jesuit Fathers to accompany 
 them back to Canada, as thirty-five years before in the dis- 
 aster which befell their cherished Huron missions, when that 
 nation was destroyed by the Iroquois, they succeeded in gath- 
 ering a Christian remnant near Quebec; and the Indian vil- 
 lages of Lorette and Caghnawaga, on the banks of the St. Law- 
 rence, remain until this day. It is due to the same policy that 
 there are at the present time more than 7,000 Iroquois in 
 Canada alone ; and of this number nearly a thousand 
 descendants, of the Mohawks, chiefly, who emigrated thither, 
 two hundred years ago, under the guidance of the Jesuit 
 missionaries. 
 
FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 21 
 
 This simple fact may, perhaps, furnish a liint, at least, 
 toward an answer to the perplexing question — what to do 
 with the Indian ? It has been demonstrated that he can be 
 both christianized and civilized, while it has been as clearly 
 proven, that all measures on the part of our Government 
 with its sj^stem of treaties, reservation agencies, preserving 
 his tribal relations and discarding his citizenship, have 
 ended in failure. He has been (h'iven from reservaticMi to 
 reservation ; cajoled by treaties made to be broken ; cheated 
 by government agents and exasperated to retaliate by the 
 only methods the savage has learned for self-protection — 
 those of war, with tlu; indiscriminate massacre of th(> inno- 
 cent and the helpless. 
 
 It was after the close of the Revolution, that the State of 
 New York, by solemn treaty with the Cayugas, reserved to 
 them a hundred square miles, on both sides of the lake that 
 bears their name ; and guaranteed to them the right to fish 
 in. its waters and hunt in its forests, and to their descendants 
 forever. Ten years sufficed to strip that reservation of 
 almost every trace of Indian occupation. As late as the 
 Presidency of John Ciuinc}' Adams, that sagacious and lib- 
 eral statesman, in view of the harassing perplexity of this 
 Indian problem, proposed to Congress that all the Indians 
 then left within the precincts of civilization, be removed to 
 the region about Green Bay, where for a long time to come, 
 they could be secure from the intrusion of the white man ; 
 and this is the region now included within the eastern 
 border of the State of Wisconsm and more than a thousand 
 miles this side of the Rocky Mountains. Thus it is that 
 our wisest statesmanshi[), in dealing with the Indian prol)lem, 
 finds itself continually swamped by the wave of our advanc- 
 ing civilization. We may not forecast its solution ; only this, 
 that the past has proved costly and cruel, and the future is 
 far from being hopeful. 
 
22 FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 But, perhaps, I am touching too closely upon questions 
 of the hour. Still, it is well to be reminded that there is this 
 living connection of the present with the past ; and as our 
 work is, to husband the experience of the past, we may 
 thereby be doing most for the light and guidance of the 
 future. 
 
FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS 
 BY THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 February 15T11, 1882. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 It is an agreeable duty wliicli the position, heJd by me 
 through 3^our favor, since tlie Society was formed, imposes 
 u})on me at each annual meeting. It is, moreover, an honor 
 which I gratefully appreciate to be thus associated with you 
 in the work we have in trust, the dignity and charm of which 
 grow with the passing years. No one of us, perhaps, is free 
 to do all he would to promote the objects we here have in 
 view. For the most part we are under the pressure of other 
 duties, with less of leisure than inclination, to pursue the 
 studies to which our Society invites. Each year, however, 
 reveals the value of these labors, and furnishes fresh incentive 
 to renewed efforts in the field we have undertaken to explore. 
 
 It has been our aim thus far to secure accurate local his- 
 tories of times and events within the limits of our own county, 
 with sketches of individuals who took an active part in them ; 
 and our archives bear witness to the diligence and success 
 which have attended these efforts. There has been no lack, 
 either of material, or of careful labor in its preparation for the 
 uses of the Society. We have listened, at successive meet- 
 ings, to these monographs with a zest and satisfaction hardly 
 to be found elsewhere among our recreations. And yet the 
 pleasure and profit thus derived, are incidental only to a much 
 higher end. Next to acting well our own part in the events 
 which are passing into history, is the duty to preserve and 
 transmit the record of what has been done for human welfare, 
 and would otherwise perish from the knowledge of men. 
 
26 FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 This is a work which is never completed. Though our 
 Society should become venerable in years and increase its ac- 
 quisitions many fold, it will continue to have the same things 
 to do tliat it is now doing, witli perhaps a much wider field 
 and, as we may hope, still larger facilities. It may well be 
 our ambition, entrusted with its interests in its comparative 
 infancy, to do what we can to make it worthy of perpetuation 
 in its beneficent work, as the generations of men come and go. 
 
 In my last annual address, I was led to speak of our home 
 field as inviting arch geological research, suggested by remains 
 corresponding to those attributed to pre-historic man, as found 
 in different parts of Europe, and, indeed, in almost every por- 
 tion of the habitable globe. I propose to pursue the subject 
 this evening, with the aid of the more recent labors of those 
 who have done most to inform us of the character and habits 
 of the people who occupied this region, when first known to 
 the European. 
 
 The importance which has attached to such remains, is in 
 the evidence they are supposed to furnish of the great anti- 
 quity of man upon the earth ; and at the same time, as shed- 
 ding light upon the related question of his development from 
 some inferior animal type. Here for example, I hold in my 
 hand such a relic, one of many similar things picked up on 
 the ancient village site within the limits of the city corpora- 
 tion, to which reference was made in my address last 
 year. It is one of the rudest implements of the Stone Age, 
 and may be regarded as among the most primitive put to the 
 uses of man. It is a simple hand hammer, made by slightly 
 hollowing a flat pebble on each side, so as to be firmly grasped 
 by the thumb and two fingers. It was an indispensable uten- 
 sil in every household, for driving wedges to split wood, 
 breaking marrow bones, cracking nuts, bruising grains, and 
 similar purposes, for which it appears to have had no substi- 
 tute. This one bears marks of long and varied use, reducing 
 
FIF^TH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 27 
 
 considerably its original size and sliape, its flat surfaces smooth 
 by hand weai\ and looks as if it might have been an heirlDoni 
 in some family, handed down for generations. 
 
 Now the question is, do we get any nearer the solution of 
 this ])roblem of the origin or antiquity of ifian, by the aid of 
 this and similar implements scattered as they are in every 
 part of the world ? I f the Stone Age covered the same period 
 the world over ; or if the implements and utensils which 
 survive a people, furnished any criterion of their capacity, or 
 intelligence even, the question would be greatly simplified. 
 But, for example, the Stone Age of Europe antedates written 
 history. Hence it opens a fine field for the antiquary in which 
 to indulge his imagination as to how long man has been upon 
 this earth, while the evolutionist can weave what theory he 
 chooses about the natural capacity of a creature who could 
 only fabricate such rude articles, and be content with the 
 narrow life which they indicate. On the other hand, there is 
 a Stone Age peculiar to this continent in that it continued 
 to a comparatively recent date, and subsequent to written 
 history, so that we know much about its peoples, their char- 
 acter, habits with their political and social institutions. 
 
 Our North American Indians, up to the time of their dis- 
 covery by European explorers, were using the same stone 
 implements, not less primitive, not a whit more ingenious in 
 their make, than those of pre-historic Europe, so frequently 
 cited as the silent witnesses of the indefinite age of man upon 
 this planet, and of his inferior origin. I have examined, care- 
 fully, a large number of illustrations covering every shape 
 and style of stone implement and weapon, characteristic of 
 the pre-historic age, side by side with those in conmion use by 
 our aboriginal Indians, and there i? no difference ; but so far 
 as they indicate intelligence or capacity, they might have 
 been made and used by one and the same people. Pre-his- 
 toric man as measured by the remains disinterred from the 
 
28 FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 burial mounds and caves of the European continent, was at 
 least not inferior to the red man of America, either in physi- 
 cal characteristics or in the arts of life. Indeed the resem- 
 blance in habits, institutions and religious belief, as thus 
 indicated, can hardly be questioned. 
 
 But what is perhaps even more significant in this connec- 
 tion, the American Stone Age, as we know it, was preceded 
 by or cotemporaneous with a period in which flourished a 
 people who have left behind them evidences of art and forms 
 of industry, which were unknown to the Indian three hun- 
 dred years ago, when first seen by the European.' Are we 
 therefore to infer that these mound-builders and metal 
 workers were the intellectual superiors of the red man who 
 was found in possession of the soil, though he did not perpet- 
 uate their type of civilization ? Does the fact that the lords 
 of the continent, when first known to the adventurous navi- 
 gator, were living in bark houses, and content with the rudest 
 form of stone implement, prove them inferior in capacity or 
 achievement to the people who built their pueblos on raised 
 embankments of earth, the remains of which liave given them 
 their name ? There are, for example, several well known 
 
 1 " From the absence of ajl traditionary knowledge of tlie mound-builders, among the 
 tribes found east of the Mississippi," says Morgan, (Houses and House Life, pp. 219, 
 220,) " an inference arises that the period of their occupation was ancient. Their with- 
 drawal was probably gradual and completed before the advent of the ancestors of the 
 present tribes, or simultaneous with their arrival. It seems more likely that their 
 retirement from the country was voluntary than that they were expelled by an influx 
 of wild tribes. If their expulsion had been the result of a protracted warfare, all remem- 
 brance of so remarkable an event would scarcely have been lost among the tribes by 
 whom they were displaced. * * * * it is not improbable that the attempt to trans- 
 plant the New Mexican type of Village life into the valley of the Ohio, proved a failure 
 and that after great efforts continued through centuries of time, it was finally aban- 
 doned by their withdrawal first into the Gulf region through which they entered, and 
 lastly from the country altogether." Dr. Abbott, (Primitive Industry, p. 350) asserts 
 that " as yet there is not one jot or tittle of evidence that proves that the native races 
 of the North Atlantic seaboard, were not ns old as the mound-builders. The latter seem 
 the older simply because the traces of antiquity on the seaboard have been overlooked 
 or strangely disregarded, because so uninviting when compared with the rich harvests of 
 strange objects, that reward the explorers of the western mounds." 
 
F'lFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 29 
 
 Indian sites within tiu^ limits of this ('(iniity, and assnining 
 now that iill wo know ahout the ])('o])l(' wlio (»n(rc occupied 
 thorn, is what may be gath,;rcd from the remains whicli have 
 survived them, their stone hannners, axes, chisels, ])estles, 
 gouges, their Hint s[)ear and arrow heads, or tlie fragments 
 of })ottery, which suggest theii' household economy, and what 
 would be the I'eady conclusion? Why, that they were the 
 rudest of savages, if not the most inferior spechnens of 
 humanity. 
 
 But, fortunatel}^, it so happens that we know much about 
 these old Cayugas, that we can never know of the prediistoric 
 })eo})les who have left the same imperishable relics, so alike 
 in form, and use, that they might have been fabricated by the 
 same hands. We know that they developed many useful 
 arts of which no remains are to be found; as of curing and 
 tanning the skins of animals; of the manufacture of mocca- 
 sins and wearing apparel ; of rope and net making from lila- 
 ments of bark; of finger weaving with warp and woof of the 
 same material into mats, sashes, burden straps and other 
 useful fabrics ; of basket making with osier, cane and splints ; 
 of canoe making from skins, birch bark, or by hollowing and 
 shaping a single log ; of making tish spears and bone hooks, 
 im})lenients for athletic games, musical instruments, such as 
 the llute and the drum together with various personal orna- 
 ments of shell, bone, and stone.''' We know also that they 
 were cultivators of the soil ; had their harvest festivals, and 
 stored for winter use the fruits of their husbandry. 
 
 But more than this, we know that these ancient Cayugas 
 formed an integral part of a powerful confederacy, with a 
 government and institutions in structure and purpose not 
 unlike our own Rc[)ublic, whicli came centuries later; cer- 
 tainly more in accordance with it in form and principle, than 
 any cotemporaneous European government. It was a marvel 
 
 2 Lewi6 H. Morgan in North American Review, October, 1868. 
 
30 FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 of })olitical sagacity, as it appeared to the intelligent and 
 devoted missionaries who first sought to win the Iro(|uois to 
 the crown of France and the Christian faith. The students 
 of political science in the Old World, were at a loss to account 
 for the existence of a system evincing such wi.sdomin adjust- 
 ing power to personal rights and combining law with liberty, 
 among rude barbarians. 
 
 Now with this knowledge, we are only to remember that 
 they were a people of the Stone Age, to distrust the conclu- 
 sion to which we are invited in speculations about the pre- 
 historic races, that because men made tlieir connnon and more 
 useful implements and their most effective weapons, of stone 
 instead of iron ; and their ornaments of shell and bone rather 
 than of copper or gold, therefore they were low in intellect 
 and related, not distantly, to the chimpanzee or the gorilla. 
 
 It is due largely to the careful labcjrs of a native of this 
 county, the late Lewis H. Morgan, that we have such full 
 knowledge of our immediate predecessors in the central and 
 western portion of the State. It was to the political and 
 social system of the Iroquois, that this distinguished scholar 
 devoted his earlier ethnological studies, and now almost 
 simultaneous with his lamented death, his latest investiga- 
 tions in this "great problem of Indian life" appear in a vol- 
 ume recentl}^ issued by the Department of the Interior at 
 Washington.^ We have also within the past year, from the 
 pen of the eminent philologist, Mr. Horatio Hale, an authen- 
 tic history of the origin of the Iroquois League, as the result 
 of much patient research.^ It presents the founder of the 
 confederation, Hiawatha, as no longer a divinity either Iro- 
 quois oi- Algonquin, but in the garb of sober history and 
 under the title of " A Law-giver of the Stone Age " Dr. 
 Morgan has done much to disentangle American aboriginal 
 
 3 U. S. Geographicul and Geological Survey, Houses and House Life of the American 
 Aborigines; Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. IV, 1881. 
 
 4 Hiawatha and the Iroquois Confederation. A study In Anthropology, 1881. 
 
FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 31 
 
 history and ethnology from perversion, earieatui-e and lo- 
 mance; but a more satisfactory sinpjlc study in this direetion, 
 than this of Mr. Ilale, it would be difficult to find tunong the 
 various contributions to this department of knowledge. 
 
 It is from a confused Indian mythology, that the genius of 
 Longfellow has woven the charming poem which sings of 
 Hiawatha as of miraculous birth, sent of the Great Spirit 
 among the red men to clear tlieir rivers, forests and fishing 
 grounds, and teach them the arts of jieace. The Gitche 
 Manitou, or Great Master of Life, has become weary with the 
 (juarrels and bloodshed o( his poor children, and tells them 
 that the)' should light each (jther no more ; that their strength 
 is in union ; that henceforth he would have them at peace 
 with one another, and promises to send them a great ])rophet 
 who will guide them and teach them ; that they have only 
 to listen to his counsels to grow and prosjier ; otherwise they 
 would fade aw^ay and perish. If, then, they would receive 
 their pi'ophet, they must cease from their bloody quarrels; 
 wash the war paint from their faces; bury their war clubs ; 
 smoke together the peace-pipe, and love as brothers. Enough 
 to say, the promise is made good in the birth of the child of 
 wonder, this son of the West Wind ; in his strange nurture; 
 his marvelous deeds of wisdom and love, until his final fare- 
 well to the people for whose good he had wrought and suf- 
 fered, when, as he faded from their sight, his bark canoe 
 seemed lifted high into a sea of splendor and then sank like 
 the new moon into the purple distance. 
 
 As in the Grecian mythology, gods were onlv magnified 
 men, so this fabled divinity of the red man, was no other than 
 a veritable Onondaga chief, " a grave Iroquois law-giver of 
 the fifteenth centur\^," instead of an " Ojibway demigod," as 
 he is made to figure in modern literature. Let us then for a 
 while, this evening, follow the traces of veritable history, as 
 given by Mr. Hale in his discriminating research over ground 
 so long surrendered to fable and song. 
 
32 FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 The Iroquois were first discovered in 1608, arid it is claimed 
 in tiieir traditions that their confederacy had existed from 
 one huii(h-ed and tifty to two hundred 3^ears, when they fii'f^t 
 saw Europeans, which would give the date of its formation 
 about A. D. 1400-1450/ If the Iroquois were originally one 
 people, as there is good reason to believe, they had been 
 broken into five independent tribes contiguous to each (rther 
 and substantially of one language. The Mohawks and Onei- 
 das on the east, were involved in pei'petual broils with the 
 Mohicans who held the banks of the Hudson River. The 
 Cayugas and Senecas on the west, were in like antagonism 
 with such warlike tribes as the Eries and Hurons, while the 
 Onondagas, being the central nation, had their own policy, 
 directed by a crafty, ambitious chief who sought to advance 
 his own power, regardless of the other Iroquois tribes. His 
 name was Atotarho, or as also written, Tododaho. He was 
 regarded as a most dangerous antagonist by his immediate 
 neighbors, as well as by his more distant enemies, and was 
 sullenly opposed to anything like union with the other tribes. 
 
 Hiawatha, himself a chief of high rank and of repute among 
 the Onondagas for his wisdom and goodness, on the contrary, 
 longed for union and peace, not only among the five nations 
 thus grouped together, but for all others, that could be in- 
 duced to come into such a league. He was now past middle 
 life, a calm and thoughtful observer of events. Moved by 
 the sad condition to which war and misrule had reduced his 
 own, and the other tribes, he kept his own counsel, while 
 meditating a scheme which would secure general peace and 
 amity. 
 
 The time at length came, when Hiawatha was ready for 
 action. He sought first the adhesion of his own nation to 
 the plan, before it should be proposed to the others. Exer- 
 cising the right of one of his rank, he summoned the chiefs 
 
 * Morgan's Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines, p. 26. 
 
FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 33 
 
 and pc(jple in council. Tliey came together in large num- 
 bers. But the presence of Atotarho, seated in grim silence, 
 was enough to over-awe the assembly, for though he spoke 
 not a word, it was apparent to all that he looked with dis- 
 l)leasure n})()n the change. Hiawatha unsupported by a 
 single voice, stood alone and the council dispersed. Nothing 
 daunted, however, he called another assembly which lor the 
 same reason as before, Itroke uj) without debate. He per- 
 sisted for the third time ; but besides himself no one came ; 
 and as the nari'ative relates, Hiawatha seated himself on the 
 ground in sorrow ; enveloped his head in his mantle of skins 
 and remained a long time wrapped in grief and thought. At 
 length, he arose and left the town ; and as the councils of his 
 own nation were closed against him, he betook his way toward 
 the Mohawks. It is related that when but a short distance 
 from the town, he passed Atotarho, his crafty antagonist 
 seated near a well known spring, in his usual stern and silent 
 mood. No word passed between them, as Hiawatha [)liing('d 
 into the forest. Among other incidents of his solitaiy jour- 
 ney, it is told, that in passing a certain lake, he gathered a 
 number of white shells Avith which its shores were sprinkled, 
 and arranged them in wampum strings upon his breast, as 
 the token that he was the messenger of peace. It was early 
 one morning that he arrived at a Mohawk town, the residence 
 of a noted chief, Dekanawidah ; and seating himself upon a 
 fallen trunk, near a spring, just as the day was dawning, he 
 awaited the coming of the first to draw water. Presentl}^, 
 one of the six brothers of Dekanawidah, who, with their 
 families, lived with him in the same house, came with his 
 vessel of elm bark, toward the spring. Hiawatha sat silent 
 and motionless. Something in his aspect awed the warrior, 
 who feared to address him. He returned to the house, saying 
 to Dekanawidah, " A man, or a figure like a man, is seated 
 by the spring, having his breast covered with white shells." 
 
34 FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 " It is a guest,'' replied the ehief, " Go bring him in ; we will 
 make him weleome."'' 
 
 Hiawatha found in the Mohawk chieftain, at once, a kin- 
 dred spirit and a wise counselor. Togetlier thej entered upon 
 the task of shaping and perfecting tlie proposed league, and 
 secui-ing for it the popular favor. The idea, as we have said, 
 was of peace and union among the several tribes whose rela- 
 tive position and mutual interest pointed in that direction, 
 while the confederation, once formed, was intended to be suffi- 
 ciently elastic to embrace any and all other tribes who sought 
 its benefits and com])lied with its terms. Indeed, the scheme 
 in its inception, was a vevy broad and liberal one, and could 
 it have been carried out, according to the idea of its pro- 
 jector, it would have been to the Indian nations of the North 
 American continent, what our Federal Union is to the states 
 that compose it. That it did not reach these colossal pro- 
 pojtions, will not diminish our respect for this " law-giver of 
 the Stone Age," who had the heart to desire, and the mind 
 to conceive the beneficient design. 
 
 After much deliberation, the approbation of the Mohawks 
 was obtained, and ambassadors were despt'tched to the Onei- 
 das, the adjacent tribe, to secure their co-operation. The 
 embassy met with a friendly reception, l)ut the gravity of the 
 matter required consideration, and it was not until the expi- 
 ration of a year, that the consent of the Oneidas was given. 
 
 With the prestige thus afforded by the favorable action of 
 the Mohawks and Oneidas, the attempt was renewed to win 
 the Onondagas to the scheme, and the deputation for the 
 
 B Among the Iroquois, hospitality was an established usage. If a man entered, an 
 Indian house, at whatever hour of the day, in any of their villages, whether a villager, 
 a tribesman or a stranger, it was the dut}' of the women therein to set food before him. 
 An omission to do this, would have been a discourtesy amounting to an affront. As a 
 custom it was upheld by a vigorous public sentiment. Mr. Morgan connects this univer- 
 sal exercise of hospitality with the ownership of land in common, the distribution of 
 their products to households, consisting of a number of families, or the practice of com- 
 munism in living in the household.— Houses and House Life, etc., p. 61. 
 
FTFTIl ANNUAL ADDRESS. 35 
 
 purpose,consistc(l of tlie three chiefs, Iliawatlia, Dekanawidah, 
 with tlie Oneida, Odatslielite. But with tliis reiiifoiveinent 
 even, the proposal was fated to another failure. Atotarho 
 kept the same mind and eoldly refused to entertain the pro- 
 ject. The deputation, however, were not to be turned from 
 their purpose. Next to the Onondagas toward the west, lay 
 tlie Cayugas ; and to their capital these messengers of peace 
 made their way through the unbroken forest, conscious of a 
 high errand and still hopeful of success. The Cayugas needed 
 little persuasion to induce them to ratify the compact. 
 
 This done, Akahenyonk, their chief, Joined with the other 
 deputies in one more effort to secure terms with the Onon- 
 dagas and their haughty chief. Resort was had to the tactics 
 of a wise diplomacy, which takes into account the diflticulties ' 
 of the case, secures what it can at once, and waits upon time 
 to bring about what, for the moment, it may seem to surren- 
 der. Thus it was proposed to concede that the Onondagas 
 should be the leading nation of the confederacy, as geograph- 
 ically they occujiied the central position ; that their chief 
 town should be the federal capital where the general councils 
 should be held, and in which they should have fourteen 
 sachems, while no other nation should have more than ten ; 
 that the right to summon a federal council should rest alone 
 in Atatarho as the leading chief, and no act should be valid 
 to which he might object. These concessions to the pride 
 of the Onondagas and the haughty obstinacy of tlieir chief, 
 met the case: and in due time they also ratified in solemn 
 treaty the league, which now embraced four of the Iroquois 
 nations. It remained to secure the adhesion of the Sonecas, 
 the most populous of them all. A certain distinction was 
 accorded to them in the recognition of their two principal 
 chiefs, as military comiuanders, with the title of Door Keepers 
 of the Long House, an ai)pellation by which the confederacy 
 was to be known; and they were [)rompt to follow the exam- 
 ple of the othei- tribes. 
 
36 FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 The union thus formed and the principles on which it was 
 founded thus thoroughly understood, the next step was to 
 construct and put in operation the actual government by the 
 ap])ointment of its first council on the basis of representation 
 already determined. This was done at a convention com- 
 posed, by common consent, of the leaders in the movement 
 already mentioned, including the Seneca chiefs, six in all, 
 which met near the Onondaga lake, with Hiawatha as their 
 princi})al adviser, and attended by a large concourse of the 
 people from vafious parts of the new confederacy. Fifty 
 sachems were selected for the federal council, distributed as 
 follows : nine each from the Mohawks and Oneidas ; four- 
 teen from the Onondagas ; ten from the Cayugas, and eight 
 from the Senecas. The I'ights of the several cantons com- 
 posing the league, were carefully guarded by providing that 
 unanimity must be reached in ever}^ decision ; that is, the 
 voice of each tribe or nation as determined by the majority 
 of its I'epresentatives, in separate deliberation, after the gen- 
 eral discussion, must be given in favor of the measure to 
 make it binding. Thus each particular nation had an equal 
 standing in the federal council, without regard to the number 
 of its representatives ; and to each was accoi'ded a veto power 
 against the action of all the others, thus neutralizing the con- 
 cession made to the Onondagas in giving them the larger 
 number of sachems in the council and their chief a veto upon 
 its acts, as substantially the same right was accorded to all.' 
 
 7 Recognizing unanimity as a necessary principle, the founders of the confederacy 
 divided tlie sachems of each tribe into classes as a means for its attainment. No sachem 
 was allowed to express an opinion in council, in the nature of a vote, until he had first 
 agreed with the sachem or sachems of his class upon the opinion to be expressed, and had 
 been appointed to act as speaker for the class. Thus, the eight Seneca sachems, being 
 in four classes, could have but four opinions ; and the ten Cayuga sachems being in the 
 same number of classes could have but four. In this manner the sachems in each class 
 were first brought to unanimity among themselves. A cross-consultation was then held 
 between the four sachems appointed to speak for the four classes ; and when they had 
 agreed they designated one of their number to express their resulting opinion, which 
 was the answer of that tribe. If the several opinions agreed, the decision of the coun- 
 cil was m:ide. If not. the measure was defeated and the council was at an end.— Houses 
 and House Life, etc., p. 37. 
 
FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 37 
 
 This is the simple history of the origin of the Iro.]uois con- 
 federation wliicli, for nicH'e than three centuries, held the Five 
 Nations together in perfect amity and made them such a 
 power on this continent. I have rehearsed the storj in the 
 briefest form, as chiefly drawn from the elaborate paper of 
 Mr. Hale, who has done such valuable service in disentang- 
 ling this early portion of Iroquois history from the legends 
 of their mythology, and given to their most cherished and 
 venerated name its place in true history. Hiawatha, as a 
 real personage, ranks with the heroes, sages and exemplars 
 of the past, who have advanced human welfare. " His tender 
 and lofty wisdom," says Mr. Hale, " his wide reaching benev- 
 olence, and his fervent appeals to the better sentiments, 
 enforced by the eloquence of which he was master, touched 
 cords in the popular heart, which have continued until tliis 
 day. Fragments of the speeches in which he addressed the 
 council and the people of the league, are still remembered and 
 repeated."'* " About the main events of his history and about 
 his character and |)nr]ioses, there can be no reasonable doubt ; 
 we have the wampum belts which he handled and whose sim- 
 ple hieroglyphics preserve the memory of the public acts in 
 which he took part. We have also in the Iroquois "Book 
 of Kites" a still more clear and convincing testimony of the 
 character both of this legislator and the people for whom his 
 institutions were designed. This book, sometimes called the 
 "Book of the condoling council," comprises the speeches, 
 songs and other ceremonials which from the earliest period 
 of the confederacy, have composed the proceedings of their 
 councils when a deceased chief is lamented and his successor 
 is installed in office. The fundamental laws of the League, 
 a list of then" ancient towns and the names of the chiefs who 
 
 8 Hiawatha and the Iroquois Confederation, p. 15. 
 
38 FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 constituted their first council, chanted in a kind of litany, 
 are also comprised.''^ 
 
 These men of the Stone Age, measured by their work and 
 time, were the equals in intellectual endowment and prac- 
 tical wisdom with any whose names are associated with the 
 origin of nations. Their ideas of union and independence of 
 law as the basis of liberty, antedate the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence and Constitution of the United States, at least three 
 centuries. These " Flint Folk " had maintained freedom with 
 self-government in the heart of our empire state, for two hun- 
 dred years before Hendrick Hudson sailed up the river which 
 bears his name, or the Pilgrim Fathers set foot on Plymouth 
 Rock. It was certainly not superiority of numbers that gave 
 them the possession of the gateways of this continent from 
 the Hudson to the Mississippi ; for at the height of their 
 power, they could not command more than twenty-five hun- 
 dred warriors, with a native population of less than twelve 
 thousand. The simple fact that they maintained their union 
 with free government, in its integrity for tlirice the period 
 which covers our national life, may of itself serve to increase 
 our respect for these barbarians, as we are wont to regard 
 them, if not to abate somewhat the self esteem of our modern 
 civilization, which would delude us with the notion that supe- 
 rior culture and wider knowledge, necessarily imply superior 
 capacity and a sturdier virtue. 
 
 Another fact of special significance is that there were no 
 indications of degeneracy among their leaders, or in the peo- 
 ple themselves, from the formation of their confederacy to 
 the time when tlie earliest white men came amons: them. 
 
 9 Id. p. 19. There are at the present time in tlie United States and Canada more than 
 13,000 bearing the Iroquois names and lineage ; and says Morgan (Houses and House 
 Life, etc., p. 3^) : ' Although but a shadow of the old confederacy now remains, it is fully 
 organized with its complement of sachems and aids, with the exception of the Mohawk 
 tribe, which removed to Canada about 1775. Whenever vacancies occur, their places 
 are filled and a general council is convened to install the new sachems and their aids. 
 The present Iroquois are also perfectly familiar with the structure and principles of 
 the ancient confederacy."' 
 
FIFTir ANNUAL ADDRESS. 39 
 
 " No senator of Venice," says the Kranciscan Fatlier Ilennejiin, 
 " ever assumed a graver countenance or spoke with more 
 weight tlian these Iroquois sachems in their assemblies." 
 And the Jesuit Father Lalitau, in similiar phrase, rci)resents 
 the federal senate at Onondaga as " discussing affairs of state 
 with as mucli coohicss and gravity, as the Spanisli Junta or 
 the grand council of Venice." The successor of the haughty 
 Atotarho, two hundred years after tin; establishment of the 
 League, was the pi'incely and courteous Garacontie, the fast 
 friend of the Frencli missiontiries, the advocate of ])eace, and 
 scarcely less honored and beloved in the other cantons than by 
 his own people, the Onondagas. He was, moreover, greatly 
 esteemed by the Jesuit Fathers and the French authorities at 
 Quebec, by whom he was entertained on occasions of state, 
 with marks of higiiest respect, and whose ambassadors he 
 alwa3rs received at the Iroquois capital, with becoming dignity 
 and grace. His name signifies " sun that advances," and his 
 character as a sachem anil sage, was not unworthy the appel- 
 lation. 
 
 Not unlike Garaccuitie in many of his best characteristics, 
 and perlia}3S his superior in the arts of diplomacy and elo- 
 quence, was his contemporary, Saonchiogwa, the chief of 
 the Cayugas, whose speeches in general council and on impor- 
 tant embassies, have been preserved in the French Relations'" 
 as among the finest specimens of native oratory, wdiich have 
 called forth such encomiums from our own statesmen and 
 scholars. He was the friend and host of the learned and 
 accomplished Jesuit, dcCarhiel, wMiose contidence and esteem 
 he enjoyed, during the eighteen years' residence of that mis- 
 sionarv among the Cayugas, and through wIkisc influence he 
 was led to embrace the Chi-istian faitli, and subsequently 
 baptized by the Lord Eishop at Quebec, in the presence of 
 the Governor General and other French dignitaries both of 
 
 10 Relation, 1656, Chap. VII ; lb. 1661, Chap. II. 
 
40 FIFIH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
 
 chnrcli and state, on the conclusion of a most important 
 negotiation with which he had been charged by his coun- 
 trymen." 
 
 Among examples of military genius, I might speak of 
 Orehaoue, also a Cayuga, and recognized as the great war 
 chief of tlie Five Nations, at the period of which we are 
 speaking. His achievements, both of peace and war, would 
 till a volume. He was, perhaps, the most prominent Indian 
 figure of his time, unless we except the Huron Eat, that 
 extraordinary man of whom Charlevoix says, " No Indian 
 had ever possessed greater merit, a finer mind, more valor, 
 prudence, or discernment in understanding those with whom 
 he had to deal." Returning from France (where he had been 
 sent a prisoner through treachery) in the same vessel with 
 Count Frontenac, on his second appointment as governor- 
 general of Canada, Orehaoue became strongly attached to 
 the Count, who had a great admiration for his genius, and 
 always treated him with high consideration. Indeed, he 
 became identified with the French cause, as against the Eng- 
 lish who had in many ways sought his favor, and became 
 the war leader of the Indian allies to the crown of France. 
 He died of a brief sickness, greatly lamented ; and as a token 
 of his fidelity and eminent service, was buried at Quebec with 
 both military and ecclesiastical honors. '" 
 
 I could speak of others, if less prominent, scarcely less 
 gifted, among the Iroquois leaders in that critical period when 
 the resoui'ces of both France and England were taxed to their 
 utmost to win the Five Nations into alliance with one or the 
 other of these rival powers. But it must suffice to say that 
 all our knowledge of this people of the Stone Age, and their 
 chosen leaders, as indicating their capacity for government 
 and national achievement, only demonstrates how^unsafe it 
 
 11 lb. 1671, Chap. II. 
 
 12 See Col. Hist. N. Y., IX, 464, 534, 681. Also Shea's Charlevoix, IV, 151, 20-3, 212,246. 
 
FIFTH ANNUAL ADDRESS. 41 
 
 is, to judge of the natural capacity of a race of men from the 
 standpoint of archseology, apart frou) the hght of history. 
 
 A simihir review of the domestic and social life of the 
 Iroquois nations, for whicti there is now abundant material, 
 is equally in their favor. It would present them as a kindly 
 affectionate people, full of sympathy for their friends in dis- 
 tress, considerate to their women, tender to their children, 
 hospitable to strangers, persistently faithful to the relation- 
 ship of kindred, anxious for peace, and imbued with a profound 
 reverence for their national heroes and benefactors. Indeed, 
 the more we know of them, through the careful studies of 
 such writers as I have already indicated, the less ground 
 is there for the common prejudice that they are only treach- 
 erous and cruel, a race of rude and ferocious warriors skilled 
 in the arts of torture, rapine and bloodshed. "The ferocity, 
 craft and cruelty (says Mr. Hale) which have been deemed 
 their leading traits ha\'e been merely tbe natural accompani- 
 ments of their wars of self {^reservation and no more indicate 
 their genuine character, than the paint and plume and toma- 
 hawk of the warrior, displayed tht- customary guise in which 
 he appeared among his own people." We as a nation, would 
 resent as narrow and harsh, any judgment which might be 
 formed of our national character, most of all of our domestic 
 and social life, from the horrors which might be gathered 
 from our late civil war, or indeed from that which secured 
 rur independence, instead of being measured by the purpose 
 to be free, and the sacrifices then freely made to preserve 
 union and liberty. And fortunate will it be for the American 
 people, if after two more centuries of national life, with all 
 their accessories of power and dominion, the institutions we 
 now cherish shall remain unimpaired ; and the sentiment of 
 universal brotherhood and peace which for three hundred 
 years, directed the polity and conserved the national league 
 of this people of the Stone Age, shall still abide the strength 
 and glory of the Republic. 
 
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