The application of this claimant still remains in the Pension Bureau undetermined.  The doubt in the case appears to relate to the dependence of the father upon his son at the time of his death.

This is a question which the Bureau is so well fitted to investigate and justly determine that it is, in my opinion, best to permit the same to be there fully examined.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886.

To the House of Representatives: 

I return herewith without approval House bill No. 6753, entitled “An act granting a pension to Mrs. Alice E. Travers.”

The husband of the beneficiary, John T. Travers, enlisted August 25, 1864, and was discharged June 11, 1866.

He died January 6, 1881, from the effects of an overdose of morphine which he administered himself.  He was a druggist, and when suffering severely was in the habit of taking opiates for relief and sleep.

The disease from which it is said he suffered was lung difficulty, claimed to have been caused by a severe cold contracted in the service.

It does not appear that he ever applied for a pension, and the widow’s claim seems to have been properly rejected by the Pension Bureau on the ground that the soldier’s death was not due to his military service.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886.

To the House of Representatives: 

I return herewith without approval House bill No. 1816, entitled “An act granting a pension to Mary Ann Miller.”

Hamilton Miller, the husband of the claimant, enlisted April 22, 1861, and was sent with his regiment to Camp Dennison, in the suburbs of Cincinnati.

While thus in camp, apparently before he had ever been to the front, and on the 3d of June, 1861, he obtained permission to go to the city of Cincinnati, and was there killed by a blow received from some person who appears to be unknown; but undoubtedly the injury occurred in a fight or as the result of an altercation.

It is very clear to me that the Pension Bureau properly rejected the widow’s claim for pension, for the reason that the soldier was not in the line of duty at the date of his death.  It is also impossible to connect the death with any incident of the soldier’s military service.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886.

To the House of Representatives: 

I return herewith without approval House bill No. 7436, entitled “An act to grant a pension to Mary Anderson.”

This claimant is the widow of Richard Anderson, who at the time of his death was receiving a pension on account of chronic diarrhea contracted in the service.

On the 7th day of February, 1882, the deceased pensioner went to Sparta, in the State of Wisconsin, to be examined for an increase of his pension.  He called on the surgeon and was examined, and the next morning was found beheaded on the railroad track under such circumstances as indicated suicide.