ing reprisals, and the use of the naval force of the United States, by the executive, against Mexico, to enforce them in the event of a refusal by the Mexican government to come to an amicable adjustment of the matters in controversy between us, upon another demand thereof, made from on board of one of our vessels of war on the coast of Mexico'."
Congress granted the authority to President Jackson which he had requested to settle our differences with Mexico. When that nation found that our Government was in earnest and came to fear the use of force, it suggested the formation of a joint commission, as Carranza did under similar circumstances. The commission was appointed, and the history of its dealings is so much an anti-type of the record made by the joint commission appointed at the suggestion of the Carranza government that it appears to justify the following additional quotation from the historian referred to:
"On the 11th of April, 1839, a joint commission was appointed, which, however, was not organized until August n, 1840. The powers of the commission by the act creating it, terminated in February, 1842, and Mr. Polk, in his last annual message, thus characterizes its conduct:
"'Four of the eighteen months were consumed in preliminary discussions on frivolous and dilatory points raised by the Mexican commissioners; and it was not until the month of December, 1840,