MORGAN. | DECISIONS OF THE COUNCIL. 37 
Unanimity among the sachems was required upon all public questions, 
and essential to the validity of every public act. It was a fundamental law 
of the confederacy. They adopted a method for ascertaining the opinions 
of the members of the council which dispensed with the necessity of casting 
votes. Moreover, they were entirely unacquainted with the principle of 
majorities and minorities in the action of councils. They voted in council 
by tribes, and the sachems of each tribe were required to be of one mind 
to form a decision. Recognizing unanimity as a necessary principle, the 
founders of the confederacy divided the sachems of each tribe into classes 
as a means for its attainment. This will be seen by consulting the table 
(supra, p. 30). 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 
their tribe. When the sachems of the several tribes had, by this ingenious 
method, become of one mind separately, it remained to compare their sev- 
eral opinions, and if they agreed the decision of the council was made. If 
they failed of agreement the measure was defeated and the council was at 
an end. The five persons appointed to express the decision of the five 
tribes may possibly explain the appointment and the functions of the six 
electors, so called, in the Aztec confederacy. 
By this method of gaining assent the equality and independence of the 
several tribes were recognized and preserved. If any sachem was obdurate 
or unreasonable, influences were brought to bear upon him, through the 
preponderating sentiment, which he could not well resist, so that it seldom 
happened that inconvenience or detriment resulted from their adherence to 
the rule. Whenever all efforts to procure unanimity had failed, the whole 
matter was laid aside because further action had become impossible. 
