Arrears of Pension Act

Pension Act, Arrears of (1879), the most significant and costly piece of pension legislation of the post–Civil War period. The act provided that all soldiers' pensions commence from the date of discharge, not from the date the pension law was passed, forcing states to retroactively pay arrears at the same rate of the original pension. Pushed by a well-organized veterans' lobby, it received only eight negative votes, excluding the southern congressmen and senators, most of whom abstained. With in two years, President Chester A. Arthur had placed the cost at $250 million. In the twentieth century, the principle of public support for veterans would figure importantly in calls for further expansion of the federal welfare apparatus.

Bibliography

Kelly, Patrick J. Creating a National Home: Building the Veterans' Welfare State, 1860–1900. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997.

McConnell, Stuart C. Glorious Contentment: The Grand Army of the Republic, 1865–1900. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.