Early in 1868 Medina and congress, with the approbation of the council of state,[XXII-3] resolved upon the creation of an order of merit to reward important civil, military, and religious services rendered to the nation, and other praiseworthy acts of its citizens. Congress then on the 21st of February established the Órden de Santa Rosa y de la Civilizacion de Honduras.[XXII-4] The executive promulgated the decree on the 24th with the signature appended of Trinidad Ferrari, minister of the interior. The idea met with the approval of some, and excited the ridicule of others. The order soon fell into discredit, many unworthy persons having obtained it, and its suppression was decreed.[XXII-5] Medina was chosen president for another term of four years. In order to do this, the clause in article 33 of the national constitution forbidding reëlection for the next immediate period was repealed, which Medina's partisans effected through a constituent assembly convoked ad hoc.[XXII-6] He was accordingly reinaugurated February 1, 1870. Honduras was now to experience another series of troubles, which lasted several years. In the last days of December 1869, disturbances were apprehended in Olancho and Paraiso, in connivance with Nicaraguan exiles, for which reason those refugees were concentrated in Comayagua. Some seditious attempts were made in the following year, but were easily put down. [Sidenote: TROUBLES WITH SALVADOR.] Early in 1871, serious differences existed between the governments of Honduras and Salvador, or, to be more exact, between presidents Medina and Dueñas, on several points. The causes, as well as the fruitless efforts made by Honduran commissioners in San Salvador to effect a peaceable settlement of long-existing differences, are fully explained elsewhere.[XXII-7] Medina, on the 7th of February, declared all treaties between the two republics suspended, and war soon broke out. A Salvadoran army, under General Xatruch, invaded Honduras and took Comayagua, that commander styling himself provisional president. The Honduran government had entered into a correspondence with the United States ministers resident at Tegucigalpa and San Salvador, calling their attention to the 14th article of the treaty of July 4, 1864, between their nation and Honduras, under which the former recognized the rights of ownership and sovereignty of the latter in the line of the Honduras interoceanic railway, the works on which, it said, were in danger of interruption by the Salvadoran invaders. From the tenor of its notes, it would seem as if it expected the United States to hoist their flag over Comayagua, which might have hindered the operations of Xatruch. Medina's pretension was untenable, the understanding being that the obligation of the United States did not attach till after the completion of the work.[XXII-8] Moreover, the Honduran government could not reasonably expect that those ministers had an armed force at their command.