EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 10, 1886_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I have carefully considered Senate bill No. 193, entitled "An act for
the relief of John Hollins McBlair," and hereby return the same without
approval to the Senate, where it originated, with my objections to the
same.
The object of this bill is to suspend the provisions of law regulating
appointments in the Army by promotion so far as they affect John Hollins
McBlair, and to authorize the President to nominate and, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint said McBlair a first
lieutenant in the Army and to place him upon the retired list as of the
date of April 8, 1864, with the pay of his rank from April 30, 1884.
The beneficiary named in this bill was appointed a first lieutenant in
the Army, from civil life, in June, 1861, with rank from May 14, 1861.
It appears from his own testimony, afterwards taken before a retiring
board, that at the time he was commissioned he was but 17 years of age.
In October, 1861, he was in the field for five days with his regiment,
within which time he participated in no battle, skirmish, or engagement
of any kind.
After five days spent in marching and camping he was taken sick, and
after remaining in camp six or seven weeks, his illness still
continuing, he was granted sick leave and came to Washington.
In June, 1862, he was put on duty in the Commissary Department at
Washington and remained there until August, 1863, when he was summoned
before a retiring board convened for the purpose of retiring disabled
officers.
From testimony before this board it appears that the illness which
caused him to leave his regiment was one not uncommon in the Army, and
yielded to treatment, so that in April or May, 1862, he was completely
cured.
About this time, however, he was attacked with convulsions, which were
pronounced by the physicians examined before the board to be a form of
epilepsy, and for this cause he was found to be incapacitated for active
service.
The medical testimony, while it suggested various causes for this
epileptic condition, negatives entirely any claim that these attacks
were at all related to the illness which obliged this officer to abandon
service with his regiment. He testified himself that he had been told
he had one or two convulsions in childhood, but there is no direct
testimony that he was subject to epileptic attacks before he entered the
Army.
The retiring board determined upon the proof that this incapacity
did not result from any incident of military service, and therefore
Lieutenant McBlair was in October, 1863, retired wholly from the service
with one year's pay and allowances, which is the usual action in such
cases, and which was approved by the President.
But in April, 1864, the President, in a review of the case, made an
order that instead of this officer being wholly retired he should be
placed upon the retired list as of the date when the action of the
retiring board was originally approved.
For about twenty years, and up to April 30, 1884, he remained upon the
retired list and received the pay to which this position entitled him.
Quite recently, in consequence of a claim of additional pay which he
made upon the Government, his status was examined by the Court of
Claims, which decided that the action of the President in April, 1864,
by which he sought to change the original disposition of the case upon
the findings of the retiring board, was nugatory, and that ever since
October, 1863, this officer had not been connected with the Army and had
been receiving from the Government money to which he was not entitled.
If the bill herewith returned becomes a law, it makes valid all payments
made, and if its purpose is carried out causes such payments to be
resumed.
The finding of the retiring board seems so satisfactory and the merits
of this case so slight in the light of the large sum already paid to
the applicant, while the claims of thousands of wounded and disabled
soldiers wait for justice at the hands of the Government, that I am
constrained to interpose an objection to a measure which proposes to
suspend general and wholesome laws for the purpose of granting what
appears to me to be an undeserved gratuity.