Quote Originally Posted by Lady's Human View Post
I could argue semantics, but I won't. (The US wasn't really treated by the Great Powers as a serious player until after the war of 1812, and even after that it was a very, very grudging respect. Hence the post-revolutionary qualifier
I dont really care who treated the US as a serious player, but I would like to see your arguement, I only did a quick search.

.....it's like arguing when WW2 started......it all depends on whose perspective you're looking at the question from)
How can one argue about the spark that started a global inferno?

After doing a little looking we used 1 letter of marque in WW2, for an airship used in searching for submarines on the coast.
Pacific or Atlantic? Link if you saved it. Check out the book Shadow Divers if that sort of war history interests you.

As to using naval vessels to combat piracy, that's pretty much what got the original 6 frigates constructed. It would be very, very difficult to argue that using the US Navy to combat piracy is unconstitutional. Keeping the sea lanes open for merchant traffic has been priority number one for ANY navy for centuries.
Never said using the USN was unconstitutional, only that it would be cheaper to use contractors and LOMs.