Elias Cornelius (1794-1832) was a graduate of Yale Divinity School and an agent for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Having spent ample time among the "four Southern Tribes" (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw) in Tennessee and elsewhere, Cornelius argues that their removal from their present lands would be detrimental to their continued "civilization" (i.e., their conversion to Christianity and general acculturation to white ways). He also seeks to disprove "reports very unfavorable to my character" sent by Tennessee governor Joseph McMinn to the Secretary of War, by including in an appendix copies of letters between himself and Rev. David A. Sherman of Knoxville.