GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 13, 1889_.
_To the Senate_:
I return without approval Senate bill No. 2514, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Michael Shong."
It appears that the beneficiary named in this bill, under the name of
John M. Johns, enlisted in Company I, Fourteenth New York Volunteers, on
the 17th day of May, 1861, and was discharged May 24, 1863.
In November, 1876, more than thirteen years after his discharge, under
the same name of John M. Johns, he filed an application for pension,
alleging a fever sore on his right leg contracted July 1, 1862, which
resulted in the loss of the leg.
His claim was rejected in November, 1882, after a thorough special
examination, on the ground that the disease of the leg resulting in
amputation was contracted after the soldier's discharge from the
service.
The leg was amputated in February, 1865.
While there is some evidence tending to show lameness in the service and
following discharge, and while one witness swears to lameness and fever
sores in the service, evidence was also produced showing that the
soldier returned home from the Army in good physical condition and that
the disease of his leg first manifested itself in the latter part of
1864.
It will be observed that he served in the Army nearly a year after it is
alleged he contracted his disability, and that though his leg was
amputated in February, 1865, he did not apply for a pension until 1876.
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