e opinion that the pension which has been already allowed was a
liberal disposition of the case.

The beneficiary named in this bill is aged, and it would certainly be a
gratification to grant her relief; but the question is whether we do
well to establish a precedent for the allowance of claims of this
character in the distribution of pension funds.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 30, 1888_.

_To the Senate_:

I return without approval Senate bill No. 465, entitled "An act granting
a pension to William Sackman, sr."

The beneficiary named in this bill served from December 24, 1861, to
February 29, 1864, in the Fifth Regiment of the Missouri Militia
Cavalry.

He was discharged on the day last named for disability. His certificate
of discharge states his disability as follows:

Palpitation of the heart and defective lungs, the disability caused by
falling off his horse near Fredericktown, Mo., while intoxicated, on
detached service, in the month of September, 1862. Not having done any
duty since, a discharge would benefit the Government and himself.

It appears that a claim for pension was filed in the year 1881, in which
the claimant alleged that--

At Fredericktown, Mo., about the 10th or 12th of April, 1863, he had
three ribs broken by falling from his horse while surrounded by
guerrillas.

It will be seen that while the certificate of discharge mentions a fall
in September, 1862, no allusion is made to any fracture of ribs, while
the claimant alleges such an injury occurred in April, 1863.

In 1885 the surgeon who made the medical certificate attached to the
discharge, in answer to an inquiry made by the Commissioner of Pensions,
says:

I have to state that I remember the case very distinctly. I made the
examination in person, and was thoroughly acquainted with the case. I
read the statement on which the application for discharge was based to
the man, and he consented to have the papers forwarded as they read.
The application for pension is fraudulent and should not be allowed.

I have omitted references made to the habits of the soldier by this
medical officer.

Of course much reliance should be placed upon these statements made by
an officer whose business it was to know the exact facts, and who made
his certificate at a time when such facts were fresh in his mind. There
is no intimation that the surgeon who made the statement referred to was
inimi