CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 5, 1886_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I herewith return without approval House bill No. 1505, entitled "An act
granting a pension to William Dermody."

By the records of the War Department which have been furnished me it
appears that this claimant enlisted August 19, 1861; that he deserted
August 29, 1862; in November and December, 1862, he is reported as
present in confinement in regimental guardhouse, to forfeit one month's
pay by sentence of regimental court-martial; he is reported as having
deserted again in December, 1863, but as present for duty in January and
February, 1864; he reenlisted in the latter month, and was mustered out
July 17, 1865, and with his company was paid up to and including July
21, 1865.

He filed a declaration for pension in 1879, alleging that he received a
gunshot wound in the thigh at Trenton, N.J., July 21, 1865, and that the
wound was inflicted by a member of the Invalid Corps, who was whipping a
drummer boy, and the claimant interfered in behalf of the boy.

It is quite certain that the transaction took place July 23.

An examining board, in 1880, found pistol shot in thigh, but refused to
give the claimant a rating, because, as they report, "from the evidence
before the board there is reason to suppose that he was deserting from
the barracks at Trenton July 23, 1865, and was shot by the guard."

This may not be a just suspicion or finding, but he surely was not in
the service nor in the performance of any military duty at the time of
the injury, nor was he engaged in such manner as to entitle him to
indemnification at the hands of the Government.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 5, 1886_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I herewith return without approval House bill No. 1059, entitled "An act
to grant a pension to Joseph Romiser."

The Pension Bureau reports that the records of the office fail to show
that an application has been filed in favor of this claimant, though it
is stated in the report of the House committee that such a claim was
made and rejected on the ground that the claimant was not at the time of
injury in the service of the United States.

It certainly appears from the report of the committee that the
beneficiary named in this bill was not in the service of the Government
at such a time, and also that he had not been mustered into the service
of any State military organization. It is