Editing Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (section)

===Debate in the Mexican Congress===
[[File:Retrato de Manuel de la Peña y Peña.jpg|thumb|President [[Manuel de la Peña y Peña]]]]
The Mexican Congress and President [[Manuel de la Peña y Peña]] met at [[Querétaro City]] in May, 1848 while Mexico City was occupied, and were now faced with the task of negotiating the treaty while dealing with separatism and anarchy spreading throughout the country. The [[Caste War]] was ongoing in Yucatán, and the insurgents in that conflict had occupied the major cities. Many states considered the federal government to be an enemy and refused to pay taxes. Meanwhile, most notably in the Federal District there was a Mexican element advocating annexation of the entire country to the United States.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 352">{{cite book |last=Rivera Cambas|first=Manuel|date=1873|title=Los Gobernantes de Mexico: Tomo II|publisher=J.M. Aguilar Cruz|pages=352|language=es}}</ref>

The majority of congress supported the government's peace policy viewing in the Treaty of Guadalupe nothing but the unfortunate result of a poorly fought war, and viewed under this perspective as a national 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.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 352"/> 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.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 353">{{cite book |last=Rivera Cambas|first=Manuel|date=1873|title=Los Gobernantes de Mexico: Tomo II|publisher=J.M. Aguilar Cruz|pages=353|language=es}}</ref>
After the commission reported its findings, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was approved by congress. President Peña y Peña prepared decrees to prevent disorder in the capital once the occupiers left and to establish a national guard. On 26 May 1848 the government received the commissioners [[Nathan Clifford]] and [[Ambrose Hundley Sevier]] who were in Mexico to negotiate the treaty after congress had approved it with some slight modifications.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 353"/>

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.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 353"/> 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.<ref name="Rivera Cambas 1873 353"/>