ension recommended a service pension, and states that the
beneficiary is blind.

As long as the policy of granting pensions for disability traceable to
the incidents of army service is adhered to, the allowance of pensions
by special acts based upon service only gives rise to unjust and unfair
discriminations among those equally entitled, and makes precedents which
will eventually result in an entire departure from the principle upon
which pensions are now awarded.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 23, 1889_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 11803, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Henry V. Bass."

This beneficiary enlisted September 9, 1862, and was mustered out August
15, 1865. The records show no disability during his service.

It is now alleged that the soldier was sitting on the ground near his
tent while two comrades were wrestling near him, and that in the course
of the scuffle one of the parties engaged in it was thrown or fell upon
the beneficiary, injuring his right knee and ankle.

Upon these facts the claim was rejected by the Pension Bureau on the
ground that the injury was not received in the line of duty.

I do not think that the Government should be held as an insurer against
injuries of this kind, which are in no manner related to the performance
of military service.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 23, 1889_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I herewith return without approval House bill No. 11999, entitled "An
act granting a pension to William Barnes."

The beneficiary named in this bill served in a Kentucky regiment from
August 9, 1861, to December 6, 1864.

He made claim for pension in the Pension Bureau in September, 1882,
alleging that in October, 1862, he was accidentally injured by a pistol
shot in the thigh while in the line of duty.

It is conceded that he was wounded by the discharge of a pistol which he
was carrying while he was absent from his command with permission on a
visit to his home, and that the discharge of the pistol was accidental.

The circumstances of the injury are neither given in the report of the
committee to whom the claim was referred by the House of Representatives
nor in the report of the case furnished to me from the Pension Bureau,
but on the conceded facts the granting of a pension in this case can be
predicated upon no other theory except the liability of