at the
soldier was absent at roll call and was marked as absent without leave;
that in a day or two after that a member of a detail returned to camp
from Hamburg Landing and reported that he had seen the soldier there
and had been told by him that "he was off and would never go back."
Thereupon he was dropped from the roll as a deserter.

Various theories are presented to account for the soldier's absence in
other ways than by desertion, some of his comrades going so far as to
express the opinion that he was murdered at the instigation of his
captain. None of these theories, however, seem to be more than
conjectures with various degrees of plausibility.

If the question of desertion could be solved favorably to the
beneficiary, another difficulty immediately arises from the fact that
there is absolutely no proof of death except the soldier's long absence
without knowledge of his whereabouts; and if his death could be presumed
the cause of it and whether connected at all with military service are
matters regarding which we have no information whatever.

I am unable to see how a case in such a situation can be considered a
proper subject for favorable pension legislation.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _October 16, 1888_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 10661, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Mrs. Sophia Vogelsang."

The husband of this beneficiary was severely wounded in the military
service of the United States, and in consequence of said wound his
left leg was amputated. This was in 1862. In January, 1863, another
amputation was performed higher up above the knee. He appears at that
time to have been living, or at least was treated, at Detroit, Mich.
He was pensioned at the rate of $30 per month at the time of his death,
which occurred at Louisville, Ky., where he appears to have then
resided, on the 21st day of July, 1885.

The beneficiary filed a claim for pension in November, 1885, alleging
that her husband died of gangrene.

There does not, however, seem to be a particle of evidence establishing
that cause of death. On the contrary, the report received at the Pension
Bureau of his death attributes it to sunstroke, and this does not seem
to be directly questioned.

The report of the House committee to whom this bill was referred
proceeds upon the theory that death was caused from the use of opium to
allay the pain of the wound. This theory