A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 680 pages of information about A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents.

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 680 pages of information about A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents.

There is a further objection to granting this pension.  I do not find that any claim is made that the death of the soldier, who was the beneficiary’s first husband, was at all attributable to his army service.  Neither he nor his widow, while she remained such, presented any such claim, nor is it found in reports of the committees in the Senate or House to whom the bill under consideration was referred.  On the contrary, the Senate Committee on Pensions in their report distinctly state that “there is no proof that soldier contracted disease while in the service or that he died of pensionable disabilities.”

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March i, 1897.

To the Senate

I return herewith without approval Senate bill No. 719, entitled “An act to restore a pension to Harriet M. Knowlton.”

Major William Knowlton, a most worthy volunteer soldier, died of wounds received in battle on the 20th day of September, 1864.

In 1865 his widow, the beneficiary named in this bill, was pensioned at the rate of $25 a month, commencing on the day of her husband’s death, with an additional allowance for four minor children dating from July, 1866.

She continued to receive this pension and allowance until November, 1867, when she married Albin P. Stinchfield.

Thereupon her name was dropped from the pension roll, she having by her remarriage lost her pensionable condition, and her children were pensioned at a small monthly rate from the date of their mother’s remarriage until June 1, 1880, when the youngest became 16 years of age.

The beneficiary, after living with her second husband about twenty-two years, secured a divorce from him in the year 1889, and it is now proposed to pension the divorced wife as the widow of her deceased soldier husband at the rate she received while she was actually his widow, thirty years ago.

Her pensionable relation to the Government terminated with her remarriage, and her divorce from her second husband could not upon any ground of principle restore it.  A departure from this rule, even in aid of cases of hardship, can not fail to establish precedents inviting the abandonment of reasonable and justifiable pension theories.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 1, 1897.

To the House of Representatives

I herewith return without approval House bill No. 1299, entitled “An act to pension Harriet Woodbury, of Windsor, Vt.”

The beneficiary named in this bill was the wife of Aaron G. Firman at the time of his enlistment in 1863.  He died October 2, 1864, and the beneficiary, as his widow, was pensioned in 1865, from the day of her soldier husband’s death.

She continued to receive the pension allowed to her as such widow until July 14, 1866, when she married Samuel H. Woodbury.  She was thereupon dropped from the pension roll pursuant to law, and in 1868 the minor son of the soldier was allowed a pension of $8 a month, commencing at the date of the remarriage of his mother.  This pension was increased to $10 a month in 1873, from July 25, 1866, and was continued until 1880, when the minor child reached the age of 16 years.

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A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.