Orders in Council (1807) - Repeal of The Orders in Council

Repeal of The Orders in Council

The British made their greatest concession to the United States in June 1812 just as the United States was declaring war. On 16 June 1812, two days before the United States declaration of war, Lord Castlereagh, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs announced in Parliament of the United Kingdom that the Order in Council would be suspended.

On the very day that the Minister took his formal leave of the United States, 23 June 1812, a new British Government headed by Lord Liverpool provisionally repealed the Order in Council.

Forty-one days after the United States Congress declared war, the word arrived in London on 29 July 1812. Two days later, 31 July 1812, the Ministry ordered its first counter-measures. It forbade English ships to sail except in convoys and restrained American ships in English ports. The Orders in Council had been repealed on 23 June 1812, but the ministers did not intend to take additional measures until they could learn the American reaction. Word of the repeal of the Orders did not reach President James Madison until 12 August 1812, some fifty days later. Even then he refused to halt hostilities because he did not know how Britain had reacted to the declaration of war.