LETTER OF MARQUE AND REPRISAL. A commission granted by the government to a ptivate individual, to take the property of a foreign state, or of the citizens or subjects of such state, as a reparation for an injury committed by such state, its citizens or sub jects. The prizes so captured are divided between the owners of the privateer, the captain, and the crew. A vessel loaded with merchandise, on a voyage to a friendly port, but armed for its own defence in case of at tack by an enemy, is also called a letter of marque. 1 Boulay-Paty, tit. 3, § 2, p. 300.
Letter of marque is now used to signify the commission issued to a privateer in time of war.
By the constitution, art. 1, § 8, cl. 11, con gress has power to grant letters of marque and reprisal. And by another section of the same instrument this power is prohibited to the several states. The granting of letters of marque is not always a preliminary to war or necessarily designed to provoke it.
It is a forcible measure for unredressed grievances, real or supposed; Story, Const § 1356. It is a means short of actual war. well recognized in international law, for terminating differences between nations; Wheat. Int. Law § 290. Special reprisals are when letters of marque are granted in time of peace, to particular individuals who have suffered an injury from the government or subjects of another nation; they are to be granted only in case of clear and open denial of justice; id. § 291.
By the Declaration of Paris (q. v.) the practice of privateering was abolished be tween the signatory powers, and although the United States was not a party to the Declaration, she refrained from issuing let ters of marque in the war with Spain in 1898.
See REPRISAL ; PRIVATEER ; DECLARATION OF PARIS.