The intercepted letter from Lord George Germain afforded evidence that the British ministry were making overtures to the people of Vermont, and were somehow persuaded that they were disposed to accept them. Alarmed by this aspect of the affair, Congress was stirred to some favorable action, but made it an indispensable preliminary to the recognition of Vermont's independence and her admission to the Union that she relinquish her claims to lands and jurisdiction beyond her original limits. Vermont, having formed the unions, her legislature being in session at Charlestown,[89] and her newly elected lieutenant-governor being a resident of the East Union, refused to break the compact, or submit the question of her independence to any power, but was willing to refer the question of her boundaries to commissioners mutually chosen, and when admitted to the Federal Union would submit any such dispute to Congress. The action of Congress called forth a protest from New York, and her delegates were instructed to oppose all such measures. There now arose imminent danger of serious collisions in both unions. There was a probability that the government of New Hampshire was about to take measures to compel the submission to its authority of those who had joined Vermont; and Governor Chittenden wrote to General Paine, the lieutenant-governor, to call out the militia east of the Green Mountains to assist the sheriff, and, if New Hampshire made an attack with an armed force, to repel force by force. General Paine sent a copy of his orders to the president of New Hampshire, and informed him that he should carry them out if New Hampshire began hostilities; at the same time commissioners were sent to the Assembly of New Hampshire to attempt an amicable arrangement of the matter. New Hampshire gave her revolted citizens forty days in which to return to her, and thus armed conflict was averted.