In view of the fact that the practice of granting military pensions was well established in their home country in the eighteenth century, it was natural that the English colonists in America should provide for the relief and support of their soldiers injured in wars with the Indians or with the colonists of other nations. As early as 1624, while Sir Francis Wyatt was governor, the general assembly of Virginia passed a body of laws and orders which were sent to England for ratification by the courts of the Virginia Company. The thirty-second article in these laws was: "That at the beginning of July next the inhabitants of every corporation shall fall upon their adjoyning Salvages, as we did last year-Those that shall be hurte upon service to be cured at the publique charge; in case any be lamed to be maintained by the country according to his person and quality." Governor Wyatt fell upon the savages during the summer of 1624, commanding in person an expedition against the Pamunkeys. However, the body of laws and orders from which the quotation has been made arrived in England too late for ratification. The king had required the Virginia Company to surrender its charter and had made the colony royal. Most of these laws were again passed by subsequent general assemblies. As to pensioning those hurt in fighting the Indians, the assembly voted in October, 1644: "Whereas in the late expeditions against the Indians, diverse men were hurt and maymed and disabled from provideing for their necessary maintenance and subsistance, Be it therefore enacted by the authority of this present Grand Assembly, That all hurt or maymed men be releived and provided for by the severall counties, where such men reside or inhabitt." This plan of requiring the localities to care for disabled soldiers resident in them was similar to the system of relief in force in England under the act of 1640 and previous laws. 2 A Virginia act for defense against the Indians passed in 1675 1 Hening's Statutes at Large, i, 121–129. 2 Alexander Brown, The First Republic in America, 606–607. 3 Hening, i, 287. See also Hening, ii, 331, 347, 440 for other pension laws. provided "that due consideration shalbe had by the grand assembly of the indigent ffamilies of such as happen to be slaine, and of the persons and ffamilies of those who shalbe maimed and disabled in this warr." A similar law of June, 1676, provided that maimed and disabled soldiers should be "maintained by the publique by an annuall pension dureing their lives, and dureing the time of such their disabilitie." Other provisions of this kind for those wounded in the Indian Wars and in the French and Indian War might readily be cited. Since the Virginia pension provision of 1624 did not receive the necessary ratification of the company in England, the Plymouth Colony should probably be credited with the earliest pension enactment in America. As early as 1636 the Pilgrims enacted in their court that "if any man shalbee sent forth as a souldier and shall return maimed hee shalbee majntained competently by the Collonie during his life." This promise of relief was meant to encourage the colony's soldiers against the Pequod Indians who were then at war with the English settlers of New England.2 The general court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony appointed in 1676 a standing committee to consider the petitions of wounded soldiers for relief, and to report to the court what they judged meet to be done. In 1679 the general court ordered some wounded soldiers to apply to this committee for relief, its meetings being appointed for the second Tuesday in September and the second Tuesday in March in "Boston toune House." After the union of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth by the charter of 1691, an act of November 23, 1693, was passed for the levying of soldiers. This law continued to disabled soldiers and seamen the yearly pensions allowed by the former government, and provided for the granting of relief out of the public treasury to such as might thereafter be disabled in the military 1 Plymouth Colony Records, xi, Laws, 106. 2 H. M. Sylvester, Indian Wars of New England, i, 183–339. 3 Records of Colony of Massachusetts Bay, v, 80, 227. * Acts and Resolves of Province of Massachusetts Bay, i, 135. service of the province. Substantially similar provisions are to be found in later military laws of the colony. The colonial laws of Maryland also illustrate the way in which pensions were promised to disabled soldiers in order to encourage enlistment against the Indians.1 In April of 1661 the general assembly of Maryland met in session at St. Mary's. To the assembled delegates and burgesses of the two houses came reports that the Indians had lately killed some English on the Patapsco River. Steps were taken to authorize the raising of a body of able men to go against the Indians. Appropriately enough an act was brought before the assembly for the encouragement of such soldiers as should enlist for the defense of the country. It was enacted "that every person that shall adventure as a Souldier in any warre in the defence of the Country and shall therein happen to be maymed or receive hurt, shall according to his place and Quallity receive mayntenance from the Country according to his disabillity for mayntayning him selfe." This act was confirmed in Lord Baltimore's name in April, 1662, and in later records we find it referred to as "the perpetuall Law of this Province." The Maryland militia law of November, 1678, contained unusually comprehensive pension provisions for a seventeenth century enactment. It promised the soldier who should be so injured while defending the province as to be rendered incapable of getting a livelihood a yearly pension out of the public levy of the province. This allowance was to be proportioned to, and for the time of, the disability. The act is especially worthy of note for its early and specific provision for the widows and orphans of the slain. It reads: "Every person Slaine in the service of this Province & leaveing behind him a wife and Children such wife and Children shall alsoe be allowed a Competent pension the wife dureing her widdowhood and the Children till they be of yeares able to gett their Liveings or be putt out apprentices And that this pension shall be yearely Rated and 1 Archives of Md., Proceedings of Assembly, 1637-38 to 1664, 408, 436 and also ibid., 1678-1683, 58. allowed out of the Publick Levy as aforesaid by a Generall assembly the party petitioning for such pension and allowance procureing a Certificate from the Commissioners of the County Court where he shee or they live that he she or they are Objects of Charity & deserve to have such pension and allowance." In 1681 it was provided that these pensions should be paid out of the fifty thousand pounds of tobacco which was to be raised by public levy to defray the small charges of the province during the intervals between the meetings of the general assembly. In subsequent acts Maryland continued her liberal policy in the matter of military pensions. New York, in the militia law passed May 6, 1691, provided that, "If any person upon any invasion or other publick military service be wounded or disabled he shall be cured and maintained out of the Publick Revenue." This was during the progress of King William's War. Later New York militia laws down to the time of the Revolution contained provisions similar to the above. Early eighteenth century pension legislation in the colonies is illustrated by the Rhode Island law passed in 1718, a few years after the close of Queen Anne's War. For the comprehensiveness of its scope this measure will stand comparison with United States pension legislation of one hundred and fifty years later. The act provided that every officer, soldier, or sailor, employed in the colony's service, who should be disabled by loss of limb or otherwise from getting a livelihood for himself and family or other dependent relatives, should have his wounds carefully looked after and healed at the colony's charge, and should have an annual pension allowed him out of the general treasury, sufficient for the maintenance of himself and family, or other dependent relatives. In case a person who had the charge of maintaining a wife, children, or other relations should be slain in the colony's service, such relatives were to be maintained by a yearly pension in such amount as the general assembly should 1 Colonial Laws of New York, i, 234. 2 Acts and Laws of Rhode Island, 74. deem sufficient "until such Wife, Children, Parents or other Relations shall happen to Die or be able to Subsist or Maintain themselves." The town council of each town in the colony was charged with the care and oversight of resident pensioners. Each council was from time to time to receive the pensions, and "therewith supply such persons as they shall stand in need thereof." These examples of pension legislation in several of the American colonies aim to afford a fair idea of its scope and character and to show that much of colonial precedent and experience was back of the development of our great national pension system. Seeking to secure enlistments in military expeditions against the Indians, or against the French, the colonies promised to care for those who should be disabled and be left without means of obtaining a livelihood, and also to aid the indigent families of those who should fall in battle. It is to be noted that the disabled pensioner was required to be incapable of earning a livelihood. A wound or injury would not of itself entitle to a pension. Widows and dependent relatives were usually required to be in indigent circumstances, and in Maryland "objects of charity." Pension provisions came to be included commonly in acts organizing the militia or in levying soldiers for some particular military expedition. Rates of pension were not specifically fixed in the laws, that matter and other details being left to the process of administration. It is scarcely possible to ascertain the amount and adequacy of the relief afforded, though sundry references in the colonial records to pensioners and payments of pensions show that the laws must have been effective to a considerable degree. By reason of so long an experience in caring for those wounded in the early wars against the Indians and French, the inhabitants of the colonies became familiar with the idea of military pensions, and it was natural that the continental government they formed should inaugurate a pension policy. Even before the Continental Congress had taken action, Virginia began to make provisions for pensions in acts to raise troops to oppose Governor Dunmore and to resist the injustice of En |