A board of surgeons in 1881 reported that they failed to "discover any evidence of disease of kidneys." It will be observed that since the date when it is claimed his disabili ties visited him Mr. Miller not only served out his first term of enlistment, but reenlisted, and necessarily must have passed a medical examination. I am entirely satisfied with the rejection of this claim by the Pension Bureau. GROVER CLEVELAND. To the House of Representatives: EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I return herewith without approval House bill No. 424, entitled "AL act to pension Giles C. Hawley." This claimant enlisted August 5, 1861, and was discharged November 14, 1861, upon a surgeon's certificate, in which he stated: "I deem him unfit to stay in the service on account of deafness. He can not hear an ordinary command.” Seventeen years after his discharge from a military service of a little more than three months' duration, and in the year 1878, the claimant filed an application for pension, in which he alleged that "from exposure and excessive duty in the service his hearing was seriously affected." There is no doubt that his disability existed to quite an extent at least before his enlistment, and there was plenty of opportunity for its increase between the time of discharge and of his application for pension. I am entirely satisfied that it should not be altogether charged to the three months he spent in the service. GROVER CLEVELAND. To the House of Representatives: EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I return herewith without approval House bill No. 7222, entitled "An act granting a pension to Callie West." I base my action upon the opinion, derived from an examination of the circumstances attending the death of the claimant's husband, that his fatal disease did not have its origin in his military service and was entirely disconnected therewith. GROVER CLEVELAND. To the House of Representatives: EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I return without approval House bill No. 6257, entitled "An act for the relief of Julia Connelly." It is proposed by this bill to grant a pension to the beneficiary named as the widow of Thomas Connelly. This man was mustered into the service October 26, 1861. He never did a day's service so far as his name appears, and the muster-out roll of his company reports him as having deserted at Camp Cameron, Pa., November 14, 1861. He visited his family about the 1st day of December, 1861, and was found December 30, 1861, drowned in a canal about 6 miles from his home. Those who prosecute claims for pensions have grown very bold when cases of this description are presented for consideration. To the House of Representatives: GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I herewith return without approval House bill No. 6774, entitled "An act granting a pension to Bruno Schultz." The application of this claimant for a pension, which was filed a number of years ago, though at one time rejected, has been since opened for reexamination, and is now awaiting additional evidence. In this condition of this case I think this bill should not be approved. GROVER CLEVELAND. To the House of Representatives: EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I hereby return without approval House bill No. 7298, entitled "An act for the relief of Charles Schuler." It is proposed by this bill to grant a pension to the person above named, who was discharged from the military service in December, 1864. He filed a declaration for a pension in the Pension Bureau in January, 1883. This application is still pending. Without referring to the merits of the case, I am of the opinion that the matter should be determined by the Bureau to which it has properly been presented before special legislation should be invoked. To the House of Representatives: GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I return herewith without approval House bill No. 7073, entitled "An act granting a pension to Mary S. Woodson." Henry Woodson, the husband of the beneficiary named, enlisted in September, 1861, and was discharged in Cctober, 1863, on account of valvular disease of the heart. The application for pension on behalf of his widow was filed August 5, 1881. She concedes that she is unable to furnish any evidence of the date or the cause of her husband's death. It appears that he left home in March, 1874, for the purpose of finding work, and neither she nor her friends have ever heard from him since. His death may naturally be presumed, and the condition of his family is such that it would be a positive gratification to aid them in the manner proposed; but the entire and conceded absence of any presumption, however weak, that he died from any cause connected with his military service seems to render it improper to place the widow's name upon the pension rolls. GROVER CLEVELAND. To the House of Representatives: EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I return without approval House bill No. 7108, entitled "An act granting a pension to Andrew J. Wilson." It appears that this man was drafted and entered the service in February, 1865, and was discharged in September of the same year on account. of "chronic nephritis and deafness." In 1882 he filed his application for a pension, alleging that in June, 1865, from exposure, he contracted rheumatism. Afterwards he described his trouble as inflammation of the muscles of the back, with pain in the kidneys. In another statement, filed in December, 1884, he alleges that while in the service he contracted diarrhea and was injured in one of his testicles, producing a rupture. Whatever else may be said of this claimant's achievements during his short military career, it must be conceded that he accumulated a great deal of disability. There is no doubt in my mind that whatever ailments he may honestly lay claim to, his title to the same was complete before he entered the Army. GROVER CLEVELAND. To the House of Representatives: EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I return herewith without approval House bill No. 7703, entitled "An act granting a pension to Anna A. Probert." The husband of this beneficiary was pensioned in 1864. He was a druggist and apothecary at Norwalk, in the State of Ohio. Shortly before his death, in 1878, he went to Memphis for the purpose of giving his professional assistance to those suffering from yellow fever at that place. He was himself attacked by that disease, and died on the 28th day of October, 1878. His widow has never herself applied for a pension, but a power of attorney has been filed, authorizing the prosecution of her claim by another. That she has employed an ingenious attorney or agent is demonstrated by the fact that the bill now before me seems to be based upon the theory that Mr. Probert might have recovered from his attack of yellow fever if he had been free from the ailments for which he had been pensioned fourteen years before. If such speculations and presumptions as this are to be indulged, we shall find ourselves surrounded and hedged in by the rule that all men entering an army were free from disease or the liability to disease before their enlistment, and every infirmity which is visited upon them thereafter is the consequence of army service. To the House of Representatives: GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I return without approval House bill No. 7162, entitled "An act granting a pension to Martha McIlwain." R. J. McIlwain, the husband of the claimant, enlisted in 1861, and was discharged in 1862 because of the loss of his right leg by a gunshot wound. He was pensioned for this disability. He died May 15, 1883, from an overdose of morphia. It is claimed by the widow that her husband was in the habit of taking morphia to alleviate the pain he endured from his stump, and that he accidentally took too much. The case was investigated by a special examiner upon the widow's application for pension, and his report shows that the deceased had been in the habit of taking morphia and knew how to use it; that he had been in the habit of buying 6 grains at a time, and that his death was caused by his taking one entire purchase of 6 grains while under the influence of liquor. In any event it is quite clear that the taking of morphia in any quantity was not the natural result of military service or injury received therein. I concur in the judgment of the Pension Bureau, which rejected the widow's claim for pension on the ground that "the death of the soldier was not due to his military service." To the House Representatives: GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. 1 nereby return without approval House bill No. 7931, entitled "An act increasing the pension of Clark Bocn." This claimant filed his declaration for pension February 3, 1874, m which he states that he lost his health while a prisoner at Tyler, Tex. On the 19th day of October, 1874, he filed an affidavit claiming that he contracted diseases of the heart and head while in the service. In a further application, filed January 16, 1878, he abandoned his allegations as to disease, and asks for a pension on account of a gunshot wound in the left ankle. Medical testimony was produced on his behalf tending to show not only a gunshot wound, but a disease of the eyes. A small pension was at last granted him upon the theory advanced by a board of surgeons in 1880 that it was "possible that applicant was entitled to a small rating for weakness of ankle." A declaration was filed June 4, 1885, by which this claimant insists upon an increase of pension on account of the wound and also for disease of eyes and rheumatism. I am entirely satisfied that all has been done in this case that the most liberal treatment demands. GROVER CLEVELAND. To the House of Representatives: EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886. I hereby return without approval House bill No. 7257, entitled "An act granting a pension to James H. Darling." This man enlisted in November, 1861, and was reported as having deserted March 5, 1862. The charge of desertion was, however, removed, and it is stated that he went to his home in Ohio at the date stated, by proper authority, where he remained sick till December, 1862, when he was discharged for disability caused "by a disease of the kidneys known as Bright's disease," from which, the physician making the certificate thought, "there was no reasonable prospect of his recovery." The claimant filed his application for pension, alleging that in January, 1862, he contracted rheumatism. The claim was investigated by a special examiner and rejected on the ground that the evidence produced failed to show the alleged disability was contracted in the service and in the line of duty. A medical examination made in 1877 showed that the claimant was a well-nourished man, 65 years old; height, 5 feet 8 inches; weight, 165 pounds." No disability was discovered, "but a general stiffness of joints, especially of legs, which he says is much aggravated in stormy, cold weather." Another examination in 1882 found this victim of war disability with "the appearance of a hale, hearty old man-no disease that was discoverable by examination (without chemical test), except some lameness from rheumatism." His weight upon this examination is stated to be 186 pounds. It is evident to me that this man ought not to be pensioned. GROVER CLEVELAND. |