This new constitution established los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, or "the United Mexican States," as a federal republic.

During the war for independence, many rebels were driven to Coahuila and Nuevo León, where this revolutionary mentality won the hearts and minds of the people.

In January 1839, Antonio Canales summoned a convention at the office of the Justice of the Peace in Laredo, where the Constitution of 1824 was unanimously approved.

[4] Intending to use the property of the church and convents to pay volunteers,[5] in 1839 and 1840, Canales was able to freely travel both sides of the Rio Grande, and recruited a small army of both Tejano and Mexican vaqueros and Caddo Indians, as well as receiving the assistance of the Texian Auxiliary Corps.

[4] Canales lingered in Mier for forty days before heading to Matamoros, a port town where another Centrist force was residing.

In twenty-eight days, his one thousand man army reached the town only to find Mexican General Valentín Canalizo there with fifteen-hundred troops.

At Monterrey, General Canales sent three hundred cavalry under the command of Colonel José Antonio Zapata to lure Arista out of town.

[7] A group of notables from the states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas advocated for a rebellion seeking secession from Mexico and formation of their own federal republic with Laredo as the capital.

On 29 March 1840, Antonio Zapata was executed and his head placed on a spike in the town of Guerrero as a reminder to his wife, children, and federalists.

While Zapata was being held prisoner, General Canales engaged Arista at San Fernando, losing 250 of his four hundred men in the process.

[6] From the beginning, President Cardenas realized that the success of the Republic of the Rio Grande depended on Texan support.

After Jordan and Molano sacked the city of Ciudad Victoria and installed a new state government, they marched to Saltillo where the Mexican General Montoya was residing.

Upon realizing the trap, Jordan, his men, and the remaining loyal vaqueros to the Rio Grande Republic turned around and took refuge in a hacienda.