necessity. A foreign relations commission returned affirmative answers to two questions that congress had directed it to report upon: May the government with the consent of Congress cede a portion of territory? Is it suitable to make peace upon the terms which have been proposed? The first question was resolved based upon the principle that congress was the deposit of the national sovereignty. The second question was resolved upon the consideration that Mexico had never been in full possession of the territories that were about to be ceded, and that most of that land was either not populated, or populated by hostile indigenous tribes. It was also taken into account that Mexico could not continue the war without facing certain defeat and risking the loss of the entire country. After the commission reported upon its findings, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was approved by congress and President Peña y Peña now worked upon decrees to prevent disorder in the capital once the occupiers left, and for the establishment of a national guard. On 26 May 1848 the government received the comiisioners Nathan Clifford and Ambrose Hundley Sevier who were in Mexico to negotiate the treaty after congress had approved it with some slight modifications. Meanwhile, the President had to deal with guerilla warfare throughout the country afflicting both the American occupiers and Mexican merchants. The aim of the guerillas was to disrupt the American supply chain from Veracruz to the capital. This was also leading to indiscriminate American reprisals. As the peace treaty was concluded and the occupiers were on the point of leaving the country, congress named Jose Joaquin Herrera to the presidency of the republic, and Peña y Peña left his post as president in exchange for the presidency of the Supreme Court on 3 June 1848. The government left Querétaro and returned to the capital. Death Less than two years after the conclusion of the war, Peña y Peña would die on the evening of 2 January 1850. His funeral was a major public event and he lay in state for three days, in the halls where the Supreme Court met. A procession of prominent individuals made up of clergy, statesmen, and academics accompanied the coffin to the National Cathedral where Peña y Peña was laid to rest. See also List of heads of state of Mexico References Further reading "Peña y Peña, Manuel de la", Enciclopedia