He has been informed that the record of his desertion in the War
Department will be investigated with a view to its correction if he
will furnish direct proof that it is erroneous. No such proof has been
supplied, and the case has not been finally acted upon in the Pension
Bureau.
It does not seem to me that this case in its present condition should
receive favorable consideration.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 10, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 9126, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Mrs. Caroline G. Seyfforth."
The husband of this beneficiary served as contract surgeon in the United
States Army from September 12, 1862, to August 17, 1865, and was
stationed at Portsmouth Grove Hospital, in Rhode Island.
He never filed a claim for pension, and died July 21, 1874, of
congestion of the liver. His widow filed an application for pension in
1882, alleging that her husband's death was caused by blood poisoning
contracted while dressing the wound of a patient in January, 1863. There
is proof that he suffered from blood poisoning.
The record of death states its cause as congestion of the liver, but the
certificate was not signed. A young doctor named Adams, a friend and
pupil of the deceased, seems to have been more than any other the
attendant physician, but he appeared to think that one of three other
doctors had actual charge of the case.
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