ring his fifteen months of service he was sick a
considerable part of the time, and the records in two of the hospitals
to which he was admitted show that his sickness was epilepsy. There are
no records showing the character of his illness in other hospitals.

His widow, the present claimant, filed an application for pension March
12, 1878, alleging that her husband committed suicide September 10,
1873, from the effects of chronic diarrhea and general debility
contracted in the service. Upon the evidence then produced her claim was
allowed at the rate of $8 a month. She remained upon the rolls until
July, 1885, when a special examination of the case was made, upon which
it was developed and admitted by the pensioner that the deceased soldier
had suffered from epilepsy from early childhood, and that during a
despondent mood following an epileptic fit he committed suicide.

Upon these facts it was determined by the Pension Bureau that the
pension should not have been granted, and it was withdrawn. It was so
satisfactorily proven that the disease which indirectly caused the death
of the claimant's husband was not contracted in the service that, in my
opinion, the conclusion arrived at on such examination should stand.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 28, 1886_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I hereby return without approval bill No. 1406, which originated in the
House of Representatives and is entitled "An act granting a pension to
Simmons W. Harden."

The claimant mentioned in this bill enlisted as a private December 30,
1863, and was discharged May 17, 1865.

He filed an application for pension in 1866, in which he alleged that
he was injured in the left side by a fall from a wagon while in the
service.

In 1880 he filed another application, in which he claimed that he was
afflicted with an enlargement of the lungs and heart from overexertion
at a review. His record in the Army makes no mention of either of these
troubles, but does show that he had at some time during his service
dyspepsia and intermittent fever.

The fact that fourteen years elapsed after he claimed to have been
injured by a fall from a wagon before he discovered that enlargement of
the lungs and heart was his real difficulty is calculated to at least
raise a doubt as to the validity of his claim.

The evidence as to his condition at the time of enlistment, as well as
since, seems quite contradictory and unsatisfactory.