MORGAN] OBJECTS OF THE COUNCIL. 35 
and nation was a result of the same processes. In all alike the gens, phra- 
try, and tribe were the first three stages of organization. The confederacy 
followed as the fourth. But it does not appear, either among the Grecian 
or Latin tribes in the Later Period of barbarism, that it became more than 
a loose league for offensive and defensive purposes. Of the nature and 
details of organization of the Grecian and Latin confederacies our knowl- 
edge is limited and imperfect, because the facts are buried in the obscurity 
of the traditionary period. The process of coalescence arises later than the 
confederacy in gentile society; but it was a necessary as well as a vital 
stage of progress by means of which the nation, the state, and political 
society were at last attained. Among the Iroquois tribes it had not mani- 
fested itself. 
The valley of Onondaga, as the seat of the central tribe, and the place 
where the Council Brand was supposed to be perpetually burning, was the 
usual though not the exclusive place for holding the councils of the con- 
federacy. In ancient times it was summoned to convene in the autumn of 
each year, but public exigencies often rendered its meetings more frequent. 
Each tribe had power to summon the council, and to appoint the time and 
place of meeting at the council-house of either tribe, when circumstances 
rendered a change from the usual place at Onondaga desirable. But the 
council had no power to convene itself. 
Originally the principal object of the council was to raise up sachems 
to fill vacancies in the ranks of the ruling body occasioned by death or 
deposition; but it transacted all other business which concerned the com- 
mon welfare. In course of time, as they multiplied in numbers and their 
intercourse with foreign tribes became more extended, the council fell into 
three distinct kinds, which may be distinguished as Civil, Mourning, and 
Religious. The first declared war and made peace, sent and received em- 
bassies, entered into treaties with foreign tribes, regulated the affairs of 
subjugated tribes, and took all needful measures to promote the general 
welfare. The second raised up sachems and invested them with office. It 
received the name of Mourning Council because the first of its ceremonies 
was the lament for the deceased ruler whose vacant place was to be filled. 
The third was held for the observance of a general religious festival. It 
