I am utterly unable to discover any relation between this accident and
the military service, or any reason why, if a pension is granted as
proposed by this bill, there should not also be a pension granted to any
of the companions of the claimant who chanced to be injured at the same
time.
A disabled man and a wife and family in need are objects which appeal to
the sympathy and charitable feelings of any decent man; but it seems to
me that it by no means follows that those intrusted with the people's
business and the expenditure of the people's money are justified in so
executing the pension laws as that they shall furnish a means of relief
in every case of distress or hardship.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 3, 1886_.
_To the Senate_:
I hereby return without approval Senate bill No. 365, entitled "An act
for the relief of Martin L. Bundy."
By this bill it is proposed to allow in the settlement by the United
States with Mr. Bundy, who was lately a paymaster in the Army, the sum
of $719.47 for the forage of two horses to which he claims he was
entitled while in the service, and which has never been drawn by him.
The time during which it is alleged this forage was due is stated to be
between July 17, 1862, and April 15, 1866.
This claimant was mustered out as paymaster on the last-mentioned date,
and in 1872 a certificate was issued that, his accounts having been
adjusted, they exhibited no indebtedness on his part to the United
States.
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