which he has been afflicted from his infancy."

Upon this certificate, based necessarily so far as his previous
condition is concerned, this man procured his discharge after doing but
very slight service.

He filed an application for pension in the Pension Bureau in October,
1879, basing his claim upon the allegation that he contracted asthma in
September, 1862, about a month after he entered the service.

Two special examinations were had in his case, and his statement was
taken in each.

On the first examination he said he could not account for the statements
of his captain and surgeon, unless they arose from a remark he made that
he had phthisic when he was small.

On the second he accounted for the statements of the captain and surgeon
by saying that he felt very sick and feared that he could not live if he
remained in the service; that he was suffering with jaundice as well as
asthma; and having been told that he could not be discharged on account
of jaundice, but could on account of asthma, he asked the captain to
tell the surgeon that he had known him to have asthma before enlistment.
He also says that he procured others to tell the same story.

On these examinations there was the usual negative testimony produced of
certain parties who knew the claimant before enlistment and did not know
that he was afflicted. This is balanced by the evidence of others, who
testify that the claimant had asthma before enlistment.

Upon consideration of the character of the ailment, the testimony upon
the two examinations, and the conduct of the beneficiary and his own
admissions, I can not escape the conviction that whatever disability he
had at the date of discharge he had when he enlisted, and that his claim
was properly rejected by the Pension Bureau.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _October 16, 1888_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 9106, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Peter Liner."

The beneficiary named in this bill enlisted as a sergeant in the Regular
Army in 1871, and he alleges that he served a previous term of
enlistment, commencing in 1866.

While on a march from one post to another on the frontier, in September,
1874, the beneficiary was severely wounded by the bursting of a gun,
necessitating the amputation of three of his fingers.

The reports of this occurrence develop the fact that the gun which burst
in his hands was a shotgun, an