Thus they became factors in war or peace,, and were granted special rights in the concurrence or interference in the sale of lands, claiming that the land belonged equally to the tillers of the soil, and its defenders. The equality of rigihts granted women was one of the principal factors of strength in their confederacy, or union. Their orators studied euphony in the arrangement of their words. Their graceful attitudes and gestures made their discourse deeply impressive. A straight, commanding figure, with blanket thrown over the shoulder, the naked arm raised in gesture, would.

AN INDIAN CIVILIZATION AND ITS DESTRUCTION. 75

to use the words of an early historian, " give no faint picture of Rome in her early days." A difference existed between the Iroquois and other tribes with respect to oratory. No others have left records of models of eloquence except in single instances on rare occasions. Red Jacket, Logan and Corn Planter were orators, who have by their eloquence perpetuated their names on the pages of history. In the happy constitution of the ruling body and the effective security of the people frotn misgovernment, the confederacy stands unrivalled. The prevailing spirit was freedom. They were secured all fhe liberty necessary for the united state and fully appreciated its value. The red man was always free from political bondage. He was convinced that man was born free ; that no person had any right to deprive him of that liberty. Undoubtedly the reason for this was the absence from the Indian mind of a desire for gain -- that great passion of the white man -- " His blessing and his curse in its use and abuse." The hunter wants of the Indian, absence of property in a comparative sense, and the infrequency of crime, dispensed with a vast amount of legislation and machinery incident to the protection of civilized society.