this paper, issued a counter proclamation, stating the insidious
designs of the enemy. Warning the inhabitants, by the example of
Jersey, of the danger to which their yielding to this seductive
proposition would expose them, and giving them the most solemn
assurances that all who should send deputies to this meeting, or in
any manner aid the enemy, would be considered traitors, and should
suffer the utmost rigour of the law.

[Footnote 78: Remem.]

The evacuation of Ticonderoga was a shock for which no part of the
United States was prepared. Neither the strength of the invading army,
nor of the garrison had been understood. When therefore intelligence
was received that a place, on the fortifications of which much money
and labour had been expended, which was considered as the key to the
whole northwestern country, and supposed to contain a garrison nearly
equal to the invading army, had been abandoned without a siege; that
an immense train of artillery, and all the military stores, had either
fallen into the hands of the enemy, or been destroyed; that the army,
on its retreat, had been attacked, defeated, and dispersed;
astonishment pervaded all ranks of men; and the conduct of the
officers was universally condemned. Congress recalled all the generals
of the department, and directed an inquiry into their conduct.
Throughout New England especially, the most bitter aspersions were
cast on them and General Schuyler, who, from some unknown cause, had
never been viewed with favour in that part of the continent, was
involved in the common charge of treachery, to which this accumulation
of unlooked-for calamity was generally attributed by the mass of the
people.