April 13, 1872, Senator Sherman joined in requesting retirement of Captain Meyer.  He was ordered before the retiring board and on August 20, 1872, was examined.

The board found Captain Meyer “incapacitated for active service, and that said incapacity results from a gunshot wound received in his lower jaw at the battle of Chancellorsville, Va., May 2, 1863,” when captain in One hundred and seventh Ohio Volunteers.  He was retired in accordance with the finding.

March 21 and December 6, 1873, Captain Meyer asked restoration to active service and reappointment as a captain of cavalry, which application was disapproved by the General of the Army.

Pending the action on the bill before Congress no reports were called for as to the official facts of record in the War Department, and no evidence has been filed in this office showing that he has sufficiently recovered.

The absence of such evidence and the fact that after one assignment to active duty he has failed to be sufficiently recovered are submitted as objections why the bill should not be approved.

E.D.  TOWNSEND, Adjutant-General.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 15, 1876.

To the House of Representatives: 

I herewith return House bill No. 4085 without my approval.  The repeal of the clause in the original bill for paving Pennsylvania avenue fixing the time for the completion of the work by December 1, 1876, is objectionable in this, that it fixes no date when the work is to be completed.

Experience shows that where contractors have unlimited time to complete any given work they consult their own convenience, and not the public good.  Should Congress deem it proper to amend the present bill in such manner as to fix the date for the completion of the work to be done by any date between December 1 and the close of my official term, it will receive my approval.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 15, 1876.

To the Senate of the United States: 

For the reasons stated in the accompanying communication, submitted to me by the Acting Secretary of the Interior, I have the honor to return herewith without my approval Senate bill No. 779, entitled “An act to provide for the sale of a portion of the reservation of the confederated Otoe and Missouria and the Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri tribes of Indians, in the States of Kansas and Nebraska.”

U.S.  GRANT.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, D.C., August 14, 1876.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR:  I have the honor to return herewith the bill (S.  No. 779) entitled “An act to provide for the sale of a portion of the reservation of the confederated Otoe and Missouria and the Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri tribes of Indians, in the States of Kansas and Nebraska,” and to invite your attention to the inclosed copy of a letter this day addressed to me by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, stating that the bill, in his opinion, should not become a law.