ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the genesis and growth of soldiers' pensions throughout the nineteenth century, especially in the aftermath of the Civil War. Military service was widely—though certainly not universally, especially in libertarian-tinctured eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America—regarded as an obligation of citizenship, so pensions were a gratuity, a bonus, a tip, and not a payment for services rendered. As of 1792, a grand total of 1,472 invalided Revolutionary War veterans were receiving pensions. In 1817, President James Monroe undertook a tour of the northern states, from New Hampshire to Ohio, and visited several Revolutionary battlefields, proclaiming on this trip that the nation would not neglect its debt to the soldiers whose labors had achieved the nation's independence. President Monroe's proposal was referred to the House Military Committee, chaired by Rep. Joseph Bloomfield (R-NJ), a former governor of New Jersey who had served as a major in the Continental Army.
