“‘This called on me for revenge, I have sought it; I have killed many. I have glutted my vengeance: for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. “‘But do not harbour a thought that mine is the _joy of fear_; Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.’” Who can blame Logan the Mingo warrior for his deeds when the provocation he received is taken into consideration? “Not one!” _Of the Political state and Institutions of the American Indians._ Among savage nations there is generally a degree of individual independence which is highly unfavourable to the establishment and consolidation of regular government. Men accustomed to victory and the use of arms, and inured to danger and fatigue, are not likely to submit to those restraints of law and jurisprudence which exist in civilized communities. The will of the savage is, in most cases, the only law which he acknowledges or submits to. It is only when the tribe to which he belongs is menaced by some foreign foe that he submits to follow a leader to the field and to be controuled by his mandates. Even then, his actions are not constrained, but voluntary. His natural ardour, and warlike disposition, hurry him on to battle more than any compulsory edict issued by the council of his nation. But in a season of peace he is his own master. Scarcely any rule except that of custom does he deign to follow; hence his actions spring spontaneously from the impulses of his own mind. In considering the political institutions of any people, our first enquiry should relate to their mode of subsistence. “According as that varies,” to use the language of Robertson, “their laws and policy must be different. The institutions suited to the ideas and exigencies of tribes which subsist chiefly by fishing or hunting, and which have as yet acquired but an imperfect conception of any species of property, will be much more simple than those which must take place when the earth is cultivated with regular industry, and a right of property, not only in its productions but in the soil itself, is completely ascertained.”