his force, he was invited by General Arista, through Colonel H. L. Kinney, to visit him. Jordan accepted the invitation and went to Mexico. After his conference with Arista, Jordan returned to Texas, and was in New Orleans in June 1841, enlisting volunteers for the support of the rebellion in Yucatán; when the boat for Yucatán sailed without him and the men he had enlisted, "Jordan in a fit of depression committed suicide by taking an overdose of laudanum on June 22, 1841."[75]

A second law, approved on December 26, authorized the President to appoint and commission three persons to raise fifteen men each to serve as spies on the northern and western frontiers for the space of four months, unless sooner discharged by the President.[76]  The companies were already recruited and functioning at the time of the passage of the law.[77]  On the same day as the enactment of this law, Captain John T. Price was instructed to raise a small company to scout toward Corpus Christi to keep an eye on the movements of Canales, Vasquez, and Villareal, who were operating in the area below the Nueces.[78]  The other companies were raised by John C. Hays and Eli Chandler of Robertson County.[79]  As already noted a joint select committee of Congress on the President's message of December 30 advised on January 12 against offensive war against Mexico owing to the poverty of the Republic. At the same time, however, it recommended that the country be placed in a state of defense against invasion.[80]

By an act of January 18, 1841, Congress abolished the office of Secretary of Navy and transferred the duties of that office to the Secretary of War.[81]  Although Congress sought to curtail expenses in ad-