The printing office, where Phelps worked, had recently reprinted an extract from the London Times that criticized President James K. Polk’s attempts to end the joint occupation of Oregon. In his inaugural address in March 1845, Polk declared that the United States’ “title to the country of the Oregon is ‘clear and unquestionable;’ and already are our people preparing to perfect that title by occupying it with their wives and children.” This declaration inflamed the British government. According to the excerpt published in the next issue of the Nauvoo Neighbor, the Times claimed that were Polk to insist on extending America’s jurisdiction to the whole of Oregon it would be the greatest cause for war “which has ever yet arisen between Great Britain and the American Union.” (Congressional Globe, 28th Cong., 2nd Sess., p. 400 [1845]; “The Caledonia. Seven Days Later from England,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 7 May 1845, [2].)

The Congressional Globe, Containing Sketches of the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session of the Twenty-Eighth Congress. Vol. 14. Washington DC: Blair and Rives, 1845.

Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.