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Resolved by the House of Representatives the Senate concurring herein that our Senators in Congress be instructed and o[u]r Representatives be requested to urge upon Congress the propriety of granting Pensions to such persons as were engaged in the defence against the Indians [separate?] ^previous^ [to] the treaty of Greenville, and that the Governor forword a copy of this Resolution to each of our Senators & representatives2
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Greenville Treaty Pensioners
1Uri Manley introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives on December 12, 1835. The House adopted it December 12, and the Senate concurred on December 12. On December 19, the House and Senate delivered the resolution
to Governor Joseph Duncan for his signature.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 37, 43; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 26, 27, 57, 78.
2On January 18, 1836, John M. Robinson presented the resolution in the U.S. Senate, and the Senate referred it to the Committee on Pensions. On February 1, Congressman
John Reynolds presented the petition in the House of Representatives, where it was tabled. On February 12, the House approved a resolution to appoint
a select committee to look into extending federal pensions to soldiers who fought
after the Revolution and before the Treaty of Greenville. On February 16, the select committee reported Bill No. 353, “A Bill to Extend the
Provisions of an Act Entitled ‘An Act Supplementary to the Act for the Relief of Certain
Surviving Officers and Soldiers of the Revolution,’ Approved June 7, 1832”. The House
referred the bill to the Committee of the Whole, which did not consider it.
The U.S. Congress enacted its first pension law in 1789, providing for the continuance of the pensions
that had been granted and paid by states to invalid Revolutionary War veterans. Beginning
in 1812, Congress occasionally extended those pension benefits to soldiers of successive
conflicts, such as the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. However, it was not until 1892 that Congress would enact pensions for veterans of
combat with Native Americans.
U.S. House Journal. 1836. 24th Cong., 1st sess., 161, 259, 334, 360; U.S. Senate Journal. 1836. 24th Cong., 1st sess., 104; William Henry Glasson, “History of Military Pension
Legislation in the United States” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1900), 64, 66.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Folder 226, GA Session: 9-2,
Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,