Chapter CVII.- An Act concerning Letters of Marque, Prizes, and Prize Goods. June 26, 1812

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby authorized and empowered to revoke and annul at pleasure all letters of marque and reprisal which he shall or may at any time grant pursuant to an act entituled "An act declaring war between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof, and the United States of America and their territories."

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all persons applying for letters of marque and reprisal, pursuant to the act aforesaid, shall state in writing the name and a suitable description of the tonnage and force of the vessel; and the name and place of residence of each owner concerned therein, and the intended number of the crew; which statement shall be signed by the person or persons making such application, and filed with the Secretary of State, or shall be delivered to any other officer or person who shall be employed to deliver out such commissions, to be by him transmitted to the Secretary of State.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That before any commission of letters of marque and reprisal shall be issued as aforesaid, the owner or owners of the ship or vessel for which the same shall be requested, and the commander thereof, for the time being, shall give bond to the United States, with at least two responsible sureties, not interested in such vessel, in the penal sum of five thousand dollars; or if such vessel be provided with more than one hundred and fifty men, then in the penal sum of ten thousand dollars; with condition that the owners, officers, and crew, who shall be employed on board such commissioned vessel, shall and will observe the treaties and laws of the United States, and the instructions which shall be given them according to law for the regulation of their conduct; and will satisfy all damages and injuries which shall be done or committed contrary to the tenor thereof by such vessel, during her commission, and to deliver up the same when revoked by the President of the United States.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all captures and prizes of vessels and property, shall be forfeited and shall accrue to the owners, officers and crews of the vessels by whom such captures and prizes shall be made; and on due condemnation had, shall be distributed according to any written agreement which shall be made between them; and if there be no such agreement, then one moiety to the owners, and the other moiety to the officers and crew, to be distributed between the officers and crew as nearly as may be, according to the rules prescribed for the distribution of prize money, by the act entituled "An act for the better government of the navy of the United States," passed the twenty-third day of April, one thousand eight hundred.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That all vessels, goods and effects, the property of any citizen of the United States, or of persons resident within and under the protection of the United States, or of persons permanently resident within and under the protection of any foreign prince, government or state, in amity with the United States, which shall have been captured by the enemy and which shall be recaptured by vessels commissioned as aforesaid, shall be restored to the lawful owners, upon payment by them respectively, of a just and reasonable salvage, to be determined by the mutual agreement of the parties concerned, or by the decree of any court having competent jurisdiction, according to the nature of each case, agreeably to the provisions heretofore established by law. And such salvage shall be distributed among the owners, officers and crews of the vessels commissioned as aforesaid, and making such recaptures according to any written agreement which shall be between them; and in case of no such agreement, then in the same manner and upon the principles herein before provided in case of capture.

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That before breaking bulk of any vessel which shall be captured as aforesaid, or other disposal or conversion thereof, or of any articles which shall be found on board the same, such captured vessel, goods or effects, shall be brought into some port of the United States, or into some port of a nation in amity with the United States, and shall be proceeded against, before a competent tribunal; and after condemnation and forfeiture thereof, shall belong to the owners and captors thereof, and be distributed as aforesaid: and in the case of all captured vessels, goods and effects which shall be brought within the jurisdiction of the United States, the district courts of the United States shall have exclusive original cognizance thereof, as in States to have civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; and the said courts, or the courts, being courts of the United States, into which such cases shall be removed, and in which they shall be finally decided, shall and may decree restitution, in whole or in part, when the capture shall have been made without just cause. And if made without probable cause, or otherwise unreasonably, may order and decree damages and costs to the party injured, and for which the owners and commanders of the vessels making such captures, and also the vessels, shall be liable.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That all prisoners found on board any captured vessels, or on board any recaptured vessel, shall be reported to the collector of the port in the United States in which they shall first arrive, and shall be delivered into the custody of the marshal of the district or some civil or military officer of the United States, or of any state in or near such port, who shall take charge of their safe keeping and support, at the expense of the United States.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby authorized to establish and order suitable instructions for the better governing and directing the conduct of the vessels, so commissioned, their officers and crews, copies of which shall be delivered, by the collector of the customs, to the commanders when they shall give bond as aforesaid.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That a bounty shall be paid by the United States of twenty dollars for each person on board any armed ship or vessel, belonging to the enemy, at the commencement of an engagement, which shall be burnt, sunk or destroyed, by any vessel commissioned as aforesaid, which shall be of equal or inferior force, the same to be divided as in other cases of prize money.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the commanding officer of every vessel having a commission, or letters of marque and reprisal, during the present hostilities between the United States and Great Britain, shall keep a regular journal, containing a true and exact account of his daily transactions and proceedings with such vessel and the crew thereof; the ports and places he shall put into or cast anchor in; the time of his stay there and the cause thereof; the prizes he shall take; the nature and probable value of such prizes; the times arid places, when and where taken, and how and in what manner he shall dispose of the same; the ships or vessels he shall fall in with; the times and places, when and where he shall meet with them, and his observations and remarks thereon; also, of whatever else shall occur to him or any of his officers or mariners, or be discovered and found out by examination or conference with any mariners or passengers of, or in any other ships and vessels, or by any other ways or means whatsoever, touching or concerning the fleets, vessels and forces of the enemy, their posts and places of station and destination, strength, numbers, intents and designs: and such commanding officer shall, immediately on his arrival in any port of the United States or the territories thereof, from or during the continuance of ay voyage or cruise, produce his commission for such vessel, and deliver up such journal so kept as aforesaid, signed with his proper name and handwriting, to the collector or other chief officer of the customs, at or nearest to such port; the truth of which journal shall be verified by the oath of the commanding officer for the time being, and such collector or other chief officer of the customs shall, immediately on the arrival of such vessel, order the proper officer of the customs to go on board and take an account of the officers and men, the number and nature of the guns, and whatever else shall occur to him, on examination, material to be known; and no such vessel shall be permitted to sail out of port again, after such arrival, until such journal shall have been delivered up, and a certificate obtained under the hand of such collector or other chief officer of the customs, that she is manned and armed according to her commission; and upon delivery of such certificate, any former certificate of a like nature, which shall have been obtained by the commander of such vessel, shall be delivered up.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That captains and commanders of vessels having letters of marque and reprisal, in case of falling in with any of the vessels of war or revenue of the United States, shall produce to the commanding officer of such vessels their journals, commissions and certificates as aforesaid; and the commanding officers of such ships of war or revenue, shall make, respectively, a memorandum in such journal of the day on which it was so produced to him, and shall subscribe his name to it: and in case such vessel, having letters of marque as aforesaid, shall put into any foreign port where there is an American consul or other public agent of the United States, the commander shall produce his journal, commission and certificate aforesaid, to such consul or agent, who may go on board and number the officers and crew and examine the guns, and if the same shall not correspond with the commission and certificate respectively, such consul or agent shall forthwith communicate the same to the Secretary of the Navy.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the commanders of vessels having letters of marque and reprisal as aforesaid, neglecting to keep a journal as aforesaid, or wilfully making fraudulent entries therein, or obliterating any material transactions therein, where the interest of the United States is in any manner concerned, or refusing to produce such journal, commission or certificate, pursuant to the preceding section of this act, then and in such cases, the commissions or letters of marque and reprisal of such vessels, shall be liable to be revoked; and such commanders, respectively shall forfeit for every such offence the sum of one thousand dollars, one moiety thereof to the use of the United States, and the other to the informer.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the owners or commanders of vessels having letters of marque and reprisal as aforesaid, who shall violate any of the acts of Congress for the collection of the revenue of the United States and for the prevention of smuggling, shall forfeit the commission or letters of marque and reprisal, and they and the vessels owned or commanded by them, shall be liable to all the penalties and forfeitures attaching to merchant vessels in like cases.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That so much of any act or acts as prohibits the importation of goods, wares and merchandise, of the growth, produce and manufacture of the dominions, colonies and dependencies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of goods, wares and merchandise imported from the dominions, colonies, and dependencies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, be, and the same is hereby repealed, so far as the same may prohibit the importation or introduction into the United States and their territories of such goods, wares and merchandise as may be captured from the enemy and made good and lawful prize of war, either by vessels having letters of marque and reprisal or by the vessels of war and revenue of the United States. And all such goods, wares and merchandise, when imported or brought into the United States or their territories, shall pay the same duties, to be secured and collected in the same manner and under the same regulations, as the like goods, wares and merchandise, if imported in vessels of the United States from any foreign port or place, in the ordinary course of trade, are now or may at the time be liable to pay.

SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That all offences committed by any officer or seaman on board any such vessel, having letters of marque and reprisal, during the present hostilities against Great Britain, shall tried and punished in such manner as the like offences are or may be tried and punished when committed by any person belonging to the public ships of war of the United States: Provided always, that all offenders who shall be accused of such crimes as are cognizable by a court martial, shall be confined on board the vessel in which such offence is alleged to have been committed, until her arrival at some port in the United States or their territories; or until she shall meet with one or more of the public armed vessels of the United States abroad, the officers whereof shall be sufficient to make a court martial for the trial of the accused; and upon application made, by the commander of such vessel, on board of which the offence is alleged to have been committed, to the Secretary of the Navy, or to the commander or senior officer of the ship or ships of war of the United States abroad as aforesaid, the Secretary of the Navy, or such commander or officer, is hereby authorized to order a court martial of the officers of the navy of the United States, for the trial of the accused, who shall be tried by the said court.

SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That an act, entituled "An act laying an embargo on all the ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States for a limited time," passed the fourth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and twelve; and an act, entituled "An act to prohibit the exportation of specie, goods, wares and merchandise, a limited time," passed April fourteenth, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, so far as they relate to ships and vessels having commissions or letters of marque and reprisal, or sailing under the same, be, and they hereby are respectively repealed.

SEC. 17. And he it further enacted, That two per centum on the net amount (after deducting all charges and expenditures) of the prize money from captured vessels and cargoes, and on the net amount of the salvage of vessels and cargoes recaptured by the private armed vessels of the United States, shall be secured and paid over to the collector or other chief officer of the customs at the port or place in the United States, at which such captured or recaptured vessels may arrive; or to the consul or other public agent of the United States residing at the port or place, not within the United States, at which such captured or recaptured vessels may arrive. And the monies arising therefrom, shall be held and hereby is pledged by the government of the United States as a fund for the support and maintenance of the widows and orphans of such persons as may be slain; and for the support and maintenance of such persons as may be wounded and disabled on board of the private armed vessels of the United States, in any engagement with the enemy, to be assigned and distributed in such manner as shall hereafter by law be provided.

APPROVED, June 26, 1812.

By James Madison

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