The War of 1812
Subtitle: diplomacy on the high seas
Contributors: United States. National Archives and Records Administration
Series: Archives unbound; Archives unbound
Publisher: Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Farmington Hills, Mich
Language: eng
Number of pages: 5551
Subjects: Archives; Correspondence; Armed merchant ships; Sources; History; Naval operations; Naval Military operations; United States. Department of State; United States
Description: "In time of war the duties of the State Department have always been expanded. During the War of 1812 Congress authorized the Secretary of State to issue commissions of letters of marque and reprisal to private armed vessels permitting them to "cruise against the enemies of the United States." Owners of merchant vessels filed applications for the commissions with the State Department or with collectors of customs. Many collectors were allowed to issue to privateers, commissions received in blank from the Department of State. The collectors often sent on to the Department the original applications and forwarded periodically abstracts of the commissions they had granted. During the war the Department also issued permits for aliens to leave the U.S., and it received reports from U.S. marshals on aliens and prisoners of war in their districts, from collectors of customs and State Department agents on the impressment of seamen, and from the Department's "Secret Agents" on the movements of the British in the Chesapeake Bay area. The Department also had responsibility for negotiating the treaty at the end of the war."
Notes: Date range: 1812-1815 (with a small quantity of documents 1789-1807).

Source library: National Archives (U.S.) and U.S. Department of State Library.

This resource is available only to current faculty, staff and students of Columbia University.
Table of contents: title: Letters received concerning letters of marque, 1812-1814; title: Letters received regarding enemy aliens, 1812-1814; title: Marshals' returns of enemy aliens and prisoners of war, 1812-1815; title: Requests for permission to sail from the United States, 1812-1814; title: Passenger lists of vessels; title: Correspondence regarding passports, 1812-1814; title: Agreements for the exchange of prisoners of war, 1812-1813; title: Miscellaneous letters received concerning the release of prisoners, 1812-1815; title: Reports of William Lambert, secret agent, 1813; title: Miscellaneous intercepted correspondence, 1789-1814.