The unhappy differences of mind among the Cherokees east of the Mississippi on the subject of removal, which had been fast approaching a climax as a consequence of the treaty of 1817, had been rather stimulated than otherwise by the frequent departure of parties for their new western home, and the constant importunities of the United States and State officials (frequently bearing the semblance of threats) having in view the removal of the entire tribe. The many and open acts of violence practiced by the "home" as against the "emigration" party at length called forth[252] a vigorous letter of denunciation from the Secretary of War to Governor McMinn, the emigration superintendent. After detailing at much length the many advantages that would accrue to the Cherokee Nation by a removal beyond the contaminating influences always attendant upon the contact of a rude and barbarous people with a higher type of civilization, the unselfish and fatherly interest the Government of the United States had always manifested and still felt in the comfort and progress of the Cherokee people, and the great degree of liberality that had characterized its action in securing for the Cherokees in their new homes an indefinite outlet to the bountiful hunting grounds of the West, the Secretary concluded by an expression of the determination on the part of the United States to protect at all hazards from insult and injury to person or property every Cherokee who should express an opinion or take action favorable to the scheme of emigration. He also instructed Governor McMinn to lose no opportunity of impressing upon the minds of the Cherokees that the practical effect of a complete execution of the treaty of 1817 would be, as had been the intention of the Government when it was negotiated, to compel them either to remove to the Arkansas or to accept individual reservations and become citizens of the States within whose limits they respectively resided. PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN TENNESSEE AND GEORGIA CONCERNING CHEROKEE REMOVAL. Governor McMinn, being the executive of the State of Tennessee, could hardly be supposed to present the views of the Secretary of War to the Cherokees on the subject of their removal in milder terms or manner than they had been communicated to him. The public officer in that State who should have neglected such an opportunity of compelling the Cherokees to appreciate the benefits of a wholesale emigration to the West would have fared but ill at the polls in a contest for re-election. The people of both Tennessee and Georgia were unalterably determined that the Indians should be removed from their States, and no compromise or temporary expedient of delay would satisfy their demands.