The Fate of Yankee Doodle

Abstract

In 1818, Congress granted pensions to those Revolutionary veterans who were indigent and who had served at least nine months in the Continental Army. Although there some opposition and much debate, the act supported by the vast majority of congressmen in both the House and the Senate. It implemented even though demand far beyond the 3,000 anticipated applicants with some 25,000 claimants before December 1819. The program accounted for 16 percent of the federal budget expenditure and nearly bankrupted the government in the wake of the depression of 1819 (p. 142). The total cost was predicted to be more than $75 million, a figure higher than the cost of fighting the Revolutionary War (p.143). Moreover, the revelation of pension abuses and a major political scandal did not end the scheme but simply resulted in an amendment, to include a means test, passed in 1822.