After Johnny Came Marching Home:
The Political Economy of Veterans’ Benefits
in the Nineteenth Century
Sung Won Kang
Samsung Economic Research Institute
Seoul, Korea
Katto2@naver.com
Hugh Rockoff (corresponding author)
Department of Economics Rutgers University and NBER
New Brunswick NJ
Rockoff@Econ.rutgers.edu
Table 1. Basic War Statistics
War
American
Revolution
War of 1812
Mexican War
Civil War
(Union)
(1) Start
1775
1812
1846
1861
(2) End
1783
1815
1849
1865
(3) Number Serving
217,000a
286,730
78,718
2,213,363
(4) Number Serving as a Percent of the Population
8.81
3.71
0.37
6.84b
(5) Battle Deaths per 1000
20.4
7.9
22.0
63.4
(6) Casualties per 1000
n.a.
n.a.
221.5
292.0
(7) Start of a Service Pension
1818
1871
1887
1890
(8) Service pensions
(per capita, $1860, discounted at 6%)
$12.59
$2.52
$24.35
$104.87
aThe
exact number is not known. This is the midpoint of figures frequently used by the Department of Defense.
figure is 10.09 percent if the 1,050,000 estimated Confederate soldiers is added.
Sources by Row. (1-6): Historical Statistics 2006, Table Ed1-5. (7): See narrative sections 3-6. (8): Authors' calculation
based on Table A2 and Historical Statistics 2006, Series Ed327.
bThe
Determinants of Benefits
•
•
•
•
The Previous History of Benefits
Secular Changes in Wealth
The Number of Veterans
The Effectiveness of Veterans’
Organizations
• Public Attitudes Toward the War
• State of the Federal Treasury
Present Value of Service Pensions (1860 $s)
$100
$90
$80
$70
$60
$50
$40
$30
$20
$10
$0
Revolution
W ar of 1812
Six Percent
Three Percent
Mexican W ar
Standard Annual Pension, Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, 18181916
$250.00
$200.00
$150.00
$100.00
$50.00
Nominal
Constant Prices
Constant Wages of Unskilled Labor
1914
1911
1908
1905
1902
1899
1896
1893
1890
1887
1884
1881
1878
1875
1872
1869
1866
1863
1860
1857
1854
1851
1848
1845
1842
1839
1836
1833
1830
1827
1824
1821
1818
$0.00
Present Value of Old-Age Cash Pensions, Three Antebellum Wars, Notional
Veteran
$1,600.00
$1,400.00
$1,200.00
1919 dollars
$1,000.00
$800.00
$600.00
$400.00
$200.00
$0.00
Revolution
War of 1812
Six Percent
Three Percent
Mexican War
The Revolutionary War Pensions
for officers
• Colonial Precedents
• The “Newburgh Conspiracy” – half pay for
life?
• Bonds – Full pay – 5 years
• Society of the Cincinnati
• 1818 $20 per month. Officers in “reduced
circumstances”
• 1828 full pay for life
Revolutionary War Cash Pensions
for Enlisted Men
•
•
•
•
•
Unprecedented??
Large Surpluses after War of 1812
Image of the suffering soldier
Law of 1818
Officers and enlisted men in “reduced
circumstances”
Service Pensions for Veterans of the Revolution, 1816-1824
$20,000,000
$15,000,000
$10,000,000
Impact of the
Law of 1818
$5,000,000
$0
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
-$5,000,000
Total Pensions
Compensation
Surplus
1823
1824
Law of 1832
• No Means Test
• Continental Army and state militias
• Two Years of Service for Maximum
Pension
Pensions and the Surplus, 1830-39
$25,000,000
$20,000,000
$15,000,000
$10,000,000
$5,000,000
$0
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
-$5,000,000
-$10,000,000
-$15,000,000
Total expenditures
Act of 1832
Surplus
1838
1839
Law of July 4, 1836
• Widow’s service pension
• Widows of Commissioned officers and
enlisted men
• Unprecedented??
• Theda Skocpol – expanding franchise
• Lee Craig – recruiting
• Large surpluses
Land grants
• Colonial Tradition
• Large grants to officers and men of the
Revolution
• General Horatio Gates – 31,000 acres, Va
• States make grants before ceding land to the
Federal Government
Land grants
• Smaller grants to War of 1812 soldiers.
Nothing for militias
• Grants to soldiers in the Mexican War
• Old Soldiers Act of 1855 grants land to the
veterans of the War of 1812
Land Bounties in Three Antebellum Wars, Acres per Veteran
200.0
175.0
Acres per Veteran
150.0
125.0
100.0
Grants made to Veterans of the War
of 1812 after the Mexican War
75.0
50.0
25.0
0.0
Revolution
War of 1812
Mexican War
War of 1812 Service Pensions
• 1871 – 56 years after the end of the war
• 1878 – liberalized – two weeks service
• "The [officers in the War of 1812] …
exhibited the same valor and love of liberty
[as the officers in the Revolution], and,
although they may not as a body have
suffered as much, yet their zeal was not
less, nor their exertions less meritorious or
successful"
Mexican War
• 1887 – 39 years
• Republican opposition – no pensions for
Confederates
• Budget is in surplus
Civil War Pension
• The Arrears Act of 1879
• The Dependent Pensions Act of 1890
• Explicit link with the budget
• High protective tariff + generous pension
benefits
Republican Party Platform 1888
• The legislation of Congress should conform to the
pledges made by a loyal people and be so enlarged and
extended as to provide against the possibility that any
man who honorably wore the Federal uniform shall
become the inmate of an almshouse, or dependent upon
private charity. In the presence of an overflowing
treasury [my italics] it would be a public scandal to do
less for those whose valorous service preserved the
government.
• In support of the principles herewith enunciated we invite
the co-operation of patriotic men of all parties, and
especially of all workingmen, whose prosperity is
seriously threatened by the free-trade policy of the
present Administration.
Conclusions
• Path dependent process
• Public Attitudes towards the war??
• State of the Treasury