GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 21, 1886.

To the House of Representatives: 

I hereby return without approval a bill originating in the House of
Representatives, entitled “An act granting an increase of pension to
John W. Farris,” which bill is numbered 6136.

The claimant mentioned in this bill enlisted in the month of October, 1861, and was mustered out of the service in August, 1865.

In 1881, sixteen years after his discharge, he filed an application for a pension, alleging that he was afflicted with chronic diarrhea contracted in the Army, and in 1885 his claim was allowed, and he was granted a pension for that cause.

In September of the same year, and after this pension was granted, he filed an application for an increase of his rate, alleging that in 1884 his eyes became affected in consequence of his previous ailments and the debility consequent thereupon.

The ingenuity developed in the constant and persistent attacks upon the public Treasury by those claiming pensions, and the increase of those already granted, is exhibited in bold relief by this attempt to include sore eyes among the results of diarrhea.

I am entirely satisfied with the opinion of the medical referee, who, after examining this case in October, 1885, reported that “the disease of the eyes can not be admitted to be a result of chronic diarrhea.”

On all grounds it seems to me that this claimant should be contented with the pension which has been already allowed him.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 21, 1886.

To the House of Representatives: 

I hereby return without approval House bill No. 1707, entitled “An act granting a pension to Elijah P. Hensley.”

The records of the War Department show that this claimant was mustered into the Third North Carolina Regiment, but on the muster-out roll of his company he is reported to have deserted April 3, 1865, and there is no record of any discharge or disability.

In September, 1866, an order was issued from his department headquarters removing the charge of desertion against him.  Thirteen days afterwards, and on the 25th day of September, 1866, he filed an application for pension, which in 1868 was granted.  He drew such pension dating from 1865 until 1877, when, upon evidence that the injury for which he was pensioned was not received in the line of duty, his name was dropped from the rolls.

The pensioner appealed from this determination of the Pension Bureau to the Secretary of the Interior, who, as lately as May, 1885, rendered a decision sustaining the action of the Bureau.

I find nothing in the facts presented to me which, in my opinion, justifies the reversal of the judgment of the Bureau and the Secretary of the Interior.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 21, 1886.