Briscards

Best.-Nr. BK0194 — Newport Rhode Island August 11 181. Manuscript letter one page on a folded sheet signed in Wilcox's name by Thomas Williams as agent. 7 ¾ x 9 ¾ inches. Old folds light toning and minor marginal wear. Very good. An early appeal under the landmark pension act of March 18 1818 the first federal legislation extending lifetime pensions to needy Revolutionary War veterans who had not been disabled in service. Benjamin Wilcox a former lieutenant in the Rhode Island Continental Line had applied almost immediately after the law's passage submitting his claim before a Newport judge in late March. Nearly five months later having received no response he wrote directly to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun: "To my great disappointment I have heard nothing of it since. If lack of evidence has been the cause I think I should have heard so. But this was deemed hardly possible by my friends after having given in one of two commissions that I have the honour to have held & such other evidence of services poverty & inability to obtain a livelihood from old age & weakness as the law appeared to require." The new program attracted far more applicants than anticipated forcing Congress to tighten eligibility requirements in 1820. Calhoun himself reported to Congress in 1823 that the War Department had not kept count of pension applications until August 1818 the very month Wilcox wrote demanding to know what had become of his claim. . unknown