GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 6, 1886.

To the House of Representatives: 

I herewith return without my approval House bill No. 6648, entitled “An act for the relief of Edward M. Harrington.”

It appears that this claimant was enrolled as a recruit December 31, 1863, and mustered in at Dunkirk, N.Y.  He remained at the barracks there until March, 1864, when he was received at the Elmira rendezvous.  From there he was sent to his regiment on the 7th day of April, 1864.

He was discharged June 15, 1864, upon a surgeon’s certificate of disability, declaring the cause of discharge to be epilepsy, produced by blows of violence over the hypochondrial region while in the service, producing a deformity of sternum.

The claimant filed an application for pension in June, 1879, and in that and subsequent affidavits he alleged that while in barracks at Dunkirk, N.Y., and about the 9th day of January, 1864, and in the line of duty, he was attacked by one Patrick Burnes, who struck him upon the head and stamped upon and kicked him, breaking his collar bone and a number of ribs, causing internal injury and fits, the latter recurring every two weeks.

It is hardly worth while considering the character of these alleged injuries or their connection with the fits with which the claimant is afflicted.

I am entirely unable to see how the injuries are related to the claimant’s army service.

The Government ought not to be called upon to insure against the quarrelsome propensities of its individual soldiers, nor to compensate one who is worsted in a fight, or even in an unprovoked attack, when the cause of injury is in no way connected with or related to any requirement or incident of military service.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 7, 1886.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I return without approval Senate bill No. 2281, entitled “An act granting to railroads the right of way through the Indian reservation in northern Montana.”

The reservation referred to stretches across the extreme northern part of Montana Territory, with British America for its northern boundary.  It contains an area of over 30,000 square miles.  It is dedicated to Indian occupancy by treaty of October 17, 1855, and act of Congress of April 15, 1874.  No railroads are within immediate approach to its boundaries, and only one, as shown on recent maps, is under construction in the neighborhood leading in its direction.  The surrounding country is sparsely settled, and I have been unable to ascertain that the necessities of commerce or any public exigencies demand this legislation, which would affect so seriously the rights and interests of the Indians occupying the reservation.

The bill is in the nature of a general right of way for railroads through this Indian reservation.  The Indian occupants have not given their consent to it, neither have they been consulted regarding it, nor is there any provision in it for securing their consent or agreement to the location or construction of railroads upon their lands.  No routes are described, and no general directions on which the line of any railroad will be constructed are given.