Taylor requested Carbajal submit a written proposal. Carbajal's written proposal detailed their request for money, supplies, and ammunition to support their rebellion. Additionally, they wanted Taylor's permission to recruit several thousand volunteers from the United States. In return, the Federalists only offered to retain the status quo situation of the Nueces Strip being open for negotiation. Taylor forwarded the request to Secretary of War William L. Marcy, who declined the request. Marcy did, however, instruct Taylor that if any Mexicans wanted to cross the border to enlist in the United States military, Taylor was to welcome them. Carbajal and Canales Rosillo threw their loyalties behind the Centralist government, conducting guerilla warfare in the border regions against the United States. The war came to an end in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Merchants War Carbajal sought to establish a Federalist state in 1851, the Republic of Sierra Madre. Mexican import tariffs and the issue of runaway slaves from Texas became facilitating factors. Abolitionists in Texas had developed an underground to assist runaway slaves to escape to freedom in the Mexican border area. Out of this situation grew bounty hunters who were dedicated to recovering runaway slaves. The mercantile smuggling industry had developed in the border areas, due to Mexico's ban of some imported goods, and exorbitant import duty on the goods it did allow. The ensuing rebellion over the import tariffs came to be known as the Merchants War. The initial seed money for Carbajal's army was raised in June 1851 through the sale of Mexican land grants to disgruntled merchants in Texas. An additional $6,000 came from an earlier loan that Carbajal's mother-in-law Patricia de la Garza De León had advanced him before her 1849 death. Carbajal recruited his troops from within Texas, some of whom joined in part because he had promised them recovery of the runaways. Among the recruits were thirty Texas Rangers led by Colonel John S. Ford. In 1851, Carbajal led an incursion of filibuster troops from Texas into Mexico, and on September 19 attacked Camargo. The captured Mexican troops signed a surrender agreement. Carbajal immediately slashed the Camargo tariff rates for goods coming into Mexico, resulting in an immediate increase of goods, and filling the coffers of the Camargo customs house. His action was countered by Mexican General Francisco Avalos, who announced a tariff cut for any goods entering