If such disabilities were
incurred in military service, they were quite likely the result of
exposure in the Confederate army; but it is not improbable that this
soldier never asked a pension because he considered that the generosity
of his Government had been sufficiently taxed when the full forfeit of
his desertion was not exacted.
The greatest possible sympathy and consideration are due to those who
bravely fought, and being captured as bravely languished in rebel
prisons.
But I will take no part in putting a name upon our pension roll which
represents a Union soldier found fighting against the cause he swore he
would uphold, nor should it be for a moment admitted that such desertion
and treachery are excused when it avoids the rigors of honorable capture
and confinement.
It would have been a sad condition of affairs if every captured Union
soldier had deemed himself justified in fighting against his Government
rather than to undergo the privations of capture.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 26, 1888_.
_To the Senate_:
I return without approval Senate bill No. 1447, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Bridget Foley."
Joseph F. Foley, the husband of the beneficiary named in this bill,
enlisted on the 22d day of August, 1862, and was discharged February 13,
1863, for disability which was certified to arise from chronic
rheumatism contracted prior to enlistment.
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