…St. Lawrence River.
"Although private armed vessels belonging to a nation, and often referred to as "privateers," were a feature of European naval warfare for centuries, it was the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789 that made them officially allowed during the War of 1812. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to "grant letters of marque and reprisal." Such letters designate a nation with which the United States is at war and allows owners of private vessels to arm those vessels and seek out and capture or destroy vessels at sea belonging to that enemy. An additional clause in the same section of the Constitution empowered Congress to "make rules concerning captures on land and water," particularly the amount and distribution of prize money awarded to the captures made by those privateers.
The War of 1812 saw a large number of private American merchant vessels, and even a few specially built as privateers (e.g. Prince de Neufchatel), receiving letters of marque and reprisal. Almost all of the letters were issued to vessels sailing from ports on the Atlantic although some were issued on the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans.1 There are only three letters of marque and reprisal known to have been granted on Lake Champlain and three on Lake Ontario. It is only those on Lake Ontario, and their operations, that are described here.2
On the Atlantic, all letters of marque and reprisal were issued by the United States Department of State. On Lakes Ontario and Champlain, however, such letters, termed "commissions," were issued by the collectors of the customs who reported to the Secretary of the Treasury. Congress delegated the authority to issue such documents to the executive branch of government, in part because Congress itself was not…"
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