Document Spotlight-Overdue Salary Edition

Recently transcriber Nsalomone brought us a document that reminds us of two important facts about the American Revolution: soldiers did not fight for free, and the new Congress was ill-equipped to perform some of its new responsibilities. It is very well known that Congress had a tough time raising money to support the military during the Revolution. In just a few short lines of text, “The Board of Treasury are so low in resources that they can scarcely make this payment,” we are reminded that soldiers often went months or longer without being paid. Moreover, once Congress found the money to begin paying soldiers, it did not happen all at once; as the letter points out, there was a line of people waiting to be paid: “these claims shall however be attended to in their order and the amount rendered as soon as possible.” It’s worth reflecting on the difficult positions facing both the new national government and the soldiers making sacrifices.

Read the original document here.

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