ntiers.
Authority had been given also for the absolute detention of all
vessels bound coastwise, if with cargoes exciting suspicion of
intention to evade the laws. Part of the small navy was sent to
cruise off the coast, and the gunboats were distributed among the
maritime districts, to intercept and to enforce submission. Steps were
taken to build vessels on Lakes Ontario and Champlain; for, in the
undeveloped condition of the road systems, these sheets of water were
principal means of transportation, after snow left the ground. To the
embargo the Navy owed the brig "Oneida", the most formidable vessel on
Ontario when war came. All this restrictive service was of course
extremely unpopular with the inhabitants; or at least with that
active, assertive element, which is foremost in pushing local
advantages, and directs popular sentiment. Nor did feeling in all
cases refrain from action. April 19, the President had to issue a
proclamation against combinations to defy the law in the country about
Champlain. The collector at Passamaquoddy wrote that, with upwards of
a hundred vessels in port, he was powerless; and the mob threatened to
burn his house.[274] A Kennebec paper doubted whether civil society
could hang together much longer. There were few places in the region
where it was safe for civil officers to execute the laws.[274a] Troops
and revenue vessels were despatched to the chief centres of
disturbance; but, while occasional rencounters occurred, attended at
times with bloodshed, and some captures of smuggled goods were
effected, the weak arm of the Government was practically powerless
against universal connivance in the disaffected districts. Smuggling
still continued to a large extent, and was very profitable; while the
determination of the smugglers assumed the character commonly styled
desperate.

Such conditions, with a falling revenue, and an Opposition strong in
sectional support, confronted the supporters of the Administration
when Congress again met in November. Confident that embargo was an
efficient coercive weapon, if relentlessly wielded, the President
wished more searching enactments, and power for more extensive and
vigorous enforcement. This Congress proceeded to grant. Additional
revenue cutters were authorized; and after long debate was passed an
Act for the Enforcement of the Embargo, approved January 9, 1809.[275]
The details of this law were derived from a letter[276] addressed to a
Committee