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Revolutionary War Invalid Pensions and the Bureaucratic Language of Disability in the Early Republic

Revolutionary War Invalid Pensions and the Bureaucratic Language of Disability in the Early Republic laurel daen William and Mary In 1792, Thaddeus Beebe, a private in the First Regiment of Connecticut Continental Troops, applied to the District Court of Connecticut for an invalid pension. In 1776, just over one month after the ratification of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress had passed an act entitling soldiers who were disabled in the line of duty to half pay for the duration of their disability (Ford 5: 702­05). Hoping to take advantage of recent legislation that had renewed this act (An Act to Provide for the Settlement), Beebe presented his case before the court. Richard Douglass, the second lieutenant in Beebe's regiment, testified that "in the year 1777 Beebe was Agreeably to an Order of Congress Inoculated for the Small Pox by which he lost the Sight of his Right Eye & was Otherwise so Debilitated" (Record Book). Joshua Raymond, a tax collector in Beebe's hometown of New London, added that "his Constitution [was] so broken down in my opinion that he has never recovered it since" (Record Book). After hearing Beebe's case, presiding judges James Iredell and Richard Law assessed him as one-quarter disabled, according to the legal stipulation that veterans who http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Early American Literature University of North Carolina Press

Revolutionary War Invalid Pensions and the Bureaucratic Language of Disability in the Early Republic

Daen, Laurel
Early American Literature , Volume 52 (1) – Mar 18, 2017
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 The University of North Carolina Press.
ISSN
1534-147X
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Abstract

laurel daen William and Mary In 1792, Thaddeus Beebe, a private in the First Regiment of Connecticut Continental Troops, applied to the District Court of Connecticut for an invalid pension. In 1776, just over one month after the ratification of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress had passed an act entitling soldiers who were disabled in the line of duty to half pay for the duration of their disability (Ford 5: 702­05). Hoping to take advantage of recent legislation that had renewed this act (An Act to Provide for the Settlement), Beebe presented his case before the court. Richard Douglass, the second lieutenant in Beebe's regiment, testified that "in the year 1777 Beebe was Agreeably to an Order of Congress Inoculated for the Small Pox by which he lost the Sight of his Right Eye & was Otherwise so Debilitated" (Record Book). Joshua Raymond, a tax collector in Beebe's hometown of New London, added that "his Constitution [was] so broken down in my opinion that he has never recovered it since" (Record Book). After hearing Beebe's case, presiding judges James Iredell and Richard Law assessed him as one-quarter disabled, according to the legal stipulation that veterans who

Journal

Early American Literature – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Mar 18, 2017

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