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Letter of Marque and Reprisal
Now, therefore.
I, Jefferson Davis. President of the
Confederate States of America,
Invite (1.
Captain Name) Jeffery
Lemma
to
service in a private armed vessel on the high seas, to aid this government
in resisting so wanton and wicked an aggression, to make application for
commissions or letters of marque and reprisal, to be issued under the seal
of these Confederate States; it is with the authority of the Congress of
the Confederate States of America that I do enact as President of the
Confederate States and hereby authorized to use the whole land and naval
force of the Confederate States to meet the war thus commenced, and to
issue to private vessels commissions or letters of marque and general
reprisal, It is with this authority in such form as I shall think proper,
under the seal of the Confederate States, against the vessels, goods, and
effects of the United States, and of the citizens or inhabitants of those
States and territories thereof; that property of the enemy shall be
subject to seizure. And I do further notify Captain
Lemma
applying
for these Letters of Marque to make a statement in writing, giving the
name and suitable description of the character, tonnage, and force of the (2.
Ship Name) Rascal
,
name of the place of residence of each owner concerned therein and the
intended number of crew, and to sign each statement, and deliver the same
to the Secretary of State or Collector of the Port of Entry of these
Confederate States, to be by him transmitted to the Secretary of State,
with the condition that the owners, officers, and crew who shall be
employed on board such commissioned vessel, shall observe the laws of
these Confederate States, and the instructions given them for the
regulation of their conduct, and shall satisfy all damages done contrary
to the tenor thereof by this vessel during her commission, and deliver up
the same when revoked by the President of the Confederate States, And I do
further specially enjoin on all persons holding offices, civil and
military, under the authority of the Confederate States, that they be
vigilant and zealous in the discharge of the duties incident thereto.
And that before breaking bulk of any vessel which shall be captured as
aforesaid, or 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 Confederate States, or of a nation
or State in amity with the Confederate States, and shall be proceeded
against before a competent tribunal; and after condemnation and forfeiture
thereof, shall belong to the owners, officers, and crew of the vessel
capturing the same, and be distributed as before provided; and in the case
of all captured vessels, goods, and effects which shall be brought within
the jurisdiction of the Confederate States, the district courts of the
Confederate States shall have exclusive original cognizance thereof, as
the civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; and the said
courts, or the courts being courts of the Confederate States into which
such cases shall he removed, in which they shall be finally decided, shall
and may decree restitution in whole or part, when the capture shall have
been made without just cause. And, if made without probable cause, may
order and decree damages and costs to the party injured, for which the
owners and commanders of the vessels making such captures, and also the
vessels, shall be liable.
Sign and sealed before me on the
Seventeenth
day of April
, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty
one.
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About
Confederate 1861
