This disastrous retreat exposed the frontiers of the Grants to an invasive war; most of the inhabitants of Onion River and along the shore of Lake Champlain instantly removed, and the militia was organized for the general defense. Internal dissensions were rife regarding the establishment of a civil government. Some were for joining with New Hampshire; others were in favor of forming a new state; and a few proposed uniting with New York during the war; but this last too much effected the title to lands to be seriously considered. Vermont was likely to be devastated as a common battle-ground; yet the people met in Convention at Dorset, January, 1776, and drew up a petition to Congress, in which they declared their readiness to furnish their quota of men in support of the war, and bearing an equal proportion of the expense, and asked that their rights might be secured them. Congress recommended that they submit to the authority of New York for the present, and assist their countrymen in the contest with Great Britain. Colonel Allen being in captivity, Baker dead, Warner, Cockran, and others, engaged in the army, the Council of the New Hampshire Grants was greatly weakened, and months passed without any decisive results. The government of the province was conducted by committees and conventions as before the war, though the bitterness of the dispute with New York seemed to be lost in the common cause of the struggling colonies; for those who had been outlawed for high treason against the government of New York, now passed freely through that province. The following were some of the reasons for forming a new State: A new government would perpetuate the name of the Green Mountain Boys, and the honor of their leaders. A new government would establish the title to their lands under the New Hampshire Grants, and provide that unappropriated lands might be disposed of to defray the expenses of the war. The active part taken by her citizens in the taking of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, would entitle the State to a favorable consideration by Congress. That upon the revolutionary principles adopted by Congress, Vermont was the oldest State in America. A call was issued for a convention, which, after several adjournments, on the 15th of January, 1777, declared the district of New Hampshire Grants to be a free and independent State. A declaration and a petition to Congress were drawn up, and a committee appointed to present the same. New York, alarmed at the possible consequences of the measure, wrote to Congress, through the President of the Committee of Safety, as follows: