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Heather Cox Richardson: Despite its faults, the G.I. Bill did more than any other law in U.S. history to prove that investing in the American people is sound policy. And it harked back to the original Republicans, who believed the government must care for its veterans. Congress established national homes for disabled volunteer soldiers on March 3, 1865, the day before President Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address, in which he asked Americans “to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”