In 1882 his widow filed her application for pension, alleging that he died of wounds received in battle.  The claim was made that he was injured while in the Army by a horse running over him.

There is little or no evidence of such an injury having been received; and if this was presented there would be no necessary connection between that and the cause of the soldier’s death, which was certified by the attending physician to be gastritis and congestion of the kidneys.

I can hardly see how the Pension Bureau could arrive at any conclusion except that the death of the soldier was not due to his military service, and the acceptance of this finding, after an examination of the facts, leads me to disapprove this bill.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 6, 1886.

To the House of Representatives: 

I herewith return without approval House bill No. 5394, entitled “An act granting a pension to Sallie Ann Bradley.”

The husband of this proposed beneficiary was discharged from the military service in 1865, after a long service, and was afterwards pensioned for gunshot wound.

He died in 1882.  The widow appears to have never filed a claim for pension in her own right.

No cause is given of the soldier’s death, but it is not claimed that it resulted from his military service, her pension being asked for entirely because of her needs and the faithful service of her husband and her sons.

This presents the question whether a gift in such a case is a proper disposition of money appropriated for the purpose of paying pensions.

The passage of this law would, in my opinion, establish a precedent so far-reaching and open the door to such a vast multitude of claims not on principle within our present pension laws that I am constrained to disapprove the bill under consideration.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 6, 1886.

To the House of Representatives: 

I return herewith without approval House bill No. 5603, entitled “An act granting a pension to Mrs. Catherine McCarty.”

The beneficiary is the widow of John McCarty, of the First Missouri Regiment of State Militia Volunteers, who died at Clinton, Mo., April 8, 1864.

The widow filed her claim in 1866, alleging that her husband died while in the service from an overdose of colchicum.

The evidence shows without dispute that on the day previous to the death of the soldier a comrade procured some medicine from the regimental surgeon and asked McCarty to smell and taste it; that he did so, and shortly afterwards became very sick and died the next morning.

It is quite evident that the deceased soldier did more than taste this medicine.

Although it would be pleasant to aid the widow in this case, it is hardly fair to ask the Government to grant a pension for the freak or gross heedlessness and recklessness of this soldier.