The embargo continued in force all through 1808 in spite of its extreme unpopularity throughout the United States. As a substitute for war it proved a failure. By it every citizen was tempted to evade {109} or defy the law. "It made men smugglers or traitors but not a single hero." The embargo reacted in favour of the British provinces in America, partly by calling forth the energies of the population and making them acquainted with their own resources, and partly by means of the indirect trade that was carried on from Eastport in Maine, across the border, and by way of Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence. In order to avoid the embargo on the coasts, goods were smuggled over the frontier to be sent to the West Indies and Halifax. In spite of new regulations and restrictions put forth by the American government, smuggling flourished. Craft of all sorts and sizes crowded the river St. Lawrence, and Canadian merchants prospered. Immense rafts were collected near the boundary line on Lake Champlain. These rafts were said to be loaded with the surplus products of Vermont for a year, consisting of wheat, potash, pork and beef. The coasting vessels, which were the means of commerce between the states, used to try to evade the law by putting into some port in Nova Scotia or the West Indies on pretence of stress of weather, and then leaving their cargo. Fresh and stricter regulations were now made. At first the embargo was not felt in the United States, but when supplies were consumed the outcry against it became violent. As the year went on it was found to have paralyzed the country. A {110} reign of idleness was established, demoralizing to everybody. A traveller (Lambert) writes that the harbour of New York was full of shipping, but the ships were dismantled and laid up. "Not a box or a bale to be seen on the wharves. Counting-houses all shut up, and merchants, clerks, porters and labourers walking about with their hands in their pockets." New England was in a worse plight. The people believed that Jefferson was sold to France. Wheat in the Middle States fell from two dollars to seventy-five cents a bushel. The chief burden however fell on the Southern States, especially on Jefferson's own state--Virginia. Tobacco there was worthless. Planters were beggared. The country was deprived of tea, coffee, sugar, salt, molasses and rum.