The obligation to help United States veterans can be traced
back to 1776, when Congress passed an act to provide
pay to all officers and enlisted men disabled in service. In
1865, thousands gathered near the U.S. Capitol for President
Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Lincoln spoke of the
travesties of the Civil War and society’s need to unify and
“to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his
widow and his orphan….”