GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 23, 1889.

To the House of Representatives: 

I return without approval House bill No. 5807, entitled “An act granting a pension to John McCool.”

This beneficiary served in an Iowa regiment of volunteers from May 27, 1861, to July 12, 1865.

He filed a petition for pension, alleging an accidental wound in the right thumb while extracting a cartridge from a pistol in August, 1861.  There is no record of any such disability, though it appears that he was on a furlough about the date of his alleged injury.  It appears that he served nearly four years after the time he fixed as the date of his injury.

No evidence was filed in support of the claim he filed, and he refused to appear for examination, though twice notified to do so.

His claim was rejected in May, 1888, no suggestion having been made of any other disability than the wound in the thumb, upon which his claim before the Bureau was based.

The report of the committee in the House of Representatives recommending the passage of this bill contains no intimation that there exists any disability contracted in the military service, but distinctly declares the pension recommended a service pension, and states that the beneficiary is blind.

As long as the policy of granting pensions for disability traceable to the incidents of army service is adhered to, the allowance of pensions by special acts based upon service only gives rise to unjust and unfair discriminations among those equally entitled, and makes precedents which will eventually result in an entire departure from the principle upon which pensions are now awarded.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 23, 1889.

To the House of Representatives: 

I return without approval House bill No. 11803, entitled “An act granting a pension to Henry V. Bass.”

This beneficiary enlisted September 9, 1862, and was mustered out August 15, 1865.  The records show no disability during his service.

It is now alleged that the soldier was sitting on the ground near his tent while two comrades were wrestling near him, and that in the course of the scuffle one of the parties engaged in it was thrown or fell upon the beneficiary, injuring his right knee and ankle.

Upon these facts the claim was rejected by the Pension Bureau on the ground that the injury was not received in the line of duty.

I do not think that the Government should be held as an insurer against injuries of this kind, which are in no manner related to the performance of military service.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 23, 1889.

To the House of Representatives: 

I herewith return without approval House bill No. 11999, entitled “An act granting a pension to William Barnes.”