d a very considerable
trade was prosecuted from and into those waters during the late war,
and a coasting trade as far as Charleston, attended with less risk
than many would imagine. A vessel may prosecute a voyage from
Elizabeth City [near the Virginia line] to Charleston without being at
sea more than a few hours at any one time."[210] Some tables of
arrivals show a comparative immunity for vessels entering here from
abroad; due doubtless to the unquestioned dangers of the coast, which
conspired with the necessarily limited extent of the traffic to keep
the enemy at a distance. It was not by them wholly overlooked. In
July, 1813, Admiral Cockburn anchored with a division off Ocracoke
bar, sent in his boats, and captured a privateer and letter-of-marque
which had there sought a refuge denied to them by the blockade
elsewhere. The towns of Beaufort and Portsmouth were occupied for some
hours. The United States naval officer at Charleston found it
necessary also to extend the alongshore cruises of his schooners as
far as Cape Fear, for the protection of this trade on its way to his
district.

The attention aroused to the development of internal navigation also
bears witness to the pressure of the blockade. "It is my opinion,"
said the Governor of Pennsylvania, "that less than one half the
treasure expended by the United States for the protection of foreign
commerce, if combined with state and individual wealth, would have
perfected an inland water communication from Maine to Georgia." It was
argued by others that the extra money spent for land transportation of
goods, while the coasting trade was suspended, would have effected a
complete tide-water inland navigation such as here suggested; and
there was cited a declaration of Robert Fulton, who died during the
war, that within twenty-one months as great a sum had been laid out in
wagon hire as would have effected this object. Whatever the accuracy
of these estimates, their silent witness to the influence of the
blockade upon commerce, external and coastwise, quite overbears
President Madison's perfunctory denials of its effectiveness, based
upon the successful evasions which more or less attend all such
operations.

Perhaps, however, the most signal proof of the pressure exerted is to
be seen in the rebound, the instant it was removed; in the effect upon
prices, and upon the movements of shipping. Taken in connection with the
other evidence, direct and circumstantial,