The medical certificate upon which he was discharged makes no mention of the disorders of which the applicant for pension now complains, but contains other statements which demonstrate that no allowance should be made to him by way of pension, unless such pension is to be openly and confessedly regarded as a mere charity, or unless the medical certificate made at the time of discharge, with the patient under observation, is to be, without any allegation to that effect, impeached.

I am not prepared either to gratuitously set at naught two determinations of the Pension Bureau, one very lately made after a special examination, and especially when the evidence produced before the committee to reverse the Bureau’s action is admitted to be “contradictory” and “biased in about equal proportion for and against the claimant.”

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 19, 1886.

To the Senate: 

I return herewith Senate bill No. 226, entitled “An act granting a pension to Margaret D. Marchand,” without approval.

The beneficiary named in this bill is the widow of John B. Marchand, who entered the United States Navy in 1828, who was promoted to the rank of commodore in 1866, and who was placed upon the retired list in 1870.  He died in August, 1875, of heart disease.

His widow filed an application for pension in 1883, claiming that his fatal disease was caused by exposure and exertion in the service during the War of the Rebellion.  The application was rejected because of the inability to furnish evidence to prove that the death had any relation to the naval service of the deceased.

I am unable to see how any other conclusion could have been reached.  The information furnished by the report of the committee to whom this bill was referred and derived from other data before me absolutely fails to connect the death of Commodore Marchand with any incident of his naval service.

This officer was undoubtedly brave and efficient, rendering his country valuable service; but it does not appear to have been of so distinguished a character, nor are the circumstances of his widow alleged to be such, as to render a gratuity justifiable.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 19, 1886.

To the Senate: 

I hereby return without my approval Senate bill No. 183, entitled “An act for the relief of Thomas S. Hopkins, late of Company C, Sixteenth Maine Volunteers.”

This soldier was enrolled in the Army June 2, 1862, and discharged June 30, 1865.  He was sent to the Government hospital September 20, 1863, and thereupon transferred to the Invalid Corps.

He filed his declaration for a pension in November, 1880, alleging that while in the service he contracted malarial fever and chronic diarrhea, and was seized with convulsions, suffering from great general debility.

A pension of $50 a month was granted to him in June, 1881, dating from the time of filing his application, which sum he has been receiving up to the present time.