reserves to itself the fee and the right forever
to resume possession and occupy any portion of said lands for naval or
military purposes whenever in the judgment of the President the exigency
arises that should require the use and appropriation of the same for the
public defense or for such other disposition as Congress may determine,
without any claim for compensation to said city for improvements thereon
or damages on account thereof.

The expediency of granting any right to the occupancy of this land is,
in my opinion, very doubtful. If it is done, it should be in the form of
a mere license, revocable at any time, for the purposes used by the
officers to which its use and disposition are now subject.

It seems to me that if any use of this land is given to the city
of Tacoma it should be with the proviso suggested by the Chief of
Engineers, instead of the indefinite and restricted one incorporated
in the bill.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 9, 1888_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 8761, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Mrs. Anna Butterfield."

It is proposed by this bill to pension the beneficiary therein named as
the "dependent mother of James A.B. Butterfield, late a sergeant in the
Second Illinois Cavalry,"

The records show that the son of this beneficiary enlisted in the
regiment mentioned in August, 1861, and was mustered out August 13,
1864. No claim is made in any quarter that he incurred the least
disability during this service, and there is no dispute in regard to the
date of enlistment or discharge, nor does there seem to be any definite
claim that he again entered the military service.

The report of the committee states that his mother is advised that after
his discharge her son still remained in the service of the Government
and was killed by an explosion on board of the steamer _Sultana_,
in April, 1865.

Her claim for pension is now pending in the Pension Bureau awaiting
testimony, which seems to be entirely wanting, to support the allegation
that at the time of his death the deceased was in the service of the
Government in any capacity.

This evidence ought not to be difficult to obtain. Though the mother
seems to have saved something, from which she draws a small income,
her advanced age and the honorable service of her son would make the
allowance of a pension in her case, upon any fair and plausib