Grants from the Public Domain as Reward to the War Veteran

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Date

1948-06

Authors

O'Callaghan, Jerry A.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Oregon

Abstract

Nations depending upon citizens to fill their armies and navies for their warfare are continually faced with a question of reward. Such nations have always been anxious that they do not appear ungrateful to the select class to which fall the specialized and sometimes hazardous responsibilities of representing the nation in war. It is a vexatious problem to reward deservedly in proportion to service. Land has always been a means of reward to a nation's fighters. Many of the Roman legions went through the ardors of their long service with the thought of the parcel of land which the Republic would bestow when that service was complete. Western Europe sent men from its warrior class out to the frontiers on the east, giving land to develop and hold against invasion. In the new world Britain did much the same, offering quantities of land on its colonial frontier to men who would serve as a buffer between the coastal settlements and the interior Indian tribes. This land policy had nearly irrevocable precedent when the British North American colonies established themselves as a sovereign nation. With such a custom so firmly rooted in the past and with a continent whose development extended indefinitely into the future, it is not at all strange that the young Republic, which had a strong distaste for mercenary or professional armies, should express gratitude to its warriors by ample rewards of land.

Description

87 pages

Keywords

public domain, land bounties, War of 1812, Mexican War

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