EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 8, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without my approval House bill No. 1471, entitled "An act
increasing the pension of Andrew J. Hill."
This bill doubles the pension which the person named therein has been
receiving for a number of years. It appears from the report of the
committee to which the bill was referred that a claim made by him for
increased pension has been lately rejected by the Pension Bureau "on the
ground that the claimant is now receiving a pension commensurate with
the degree of disability found to exist."
The policy of frequently reversing by special enactment the decisions
of the Bureau invested by law with the examination of pension claims,
fully equipped for such examination, and which ought not to be suspected
of any lack of liberality to our veteran soldiers, is exceedingly
questionable. It may well be doubted if a committee of Congress has a
better opportunity than such an agency to judge of the merits of these
claims. If, however, there is any lack of power in the Pension Bureau
for a full investigation, it should be supplied; if the system adopted
is inadequate to do full justice to claimants, it should be corrected,
and if there is a want of sympathy and consideration for the defenders
of our Government the Bureau should be reorganized.
The disposition to concede the most generous treatment to the disabled,
aged, and needy among our veterans ought not to be restrained; and it
must be admitted that in some cases justice and equity can not be done
nor the charitable tendencies of the Government in favor of worthy
objects of its care indulged under fixed rules. These conditions
sometimes justify a resort to special legislation, but I am convinced
that the interposition by special enactment in the granting of pensions
should be rare and exceptional. In the nature of things if this is
lightly done and upon slight occasion, an invitation is offered for the
presentation of claims to Congress which upon their merits could not
survive the test of an examination by the Pension Bureau, and whose
only hope of success depends upon sympathy, often misdirected, instead
of right and justice. The instrumentality organized by law for the
determination of pension claims is thus often overruled and discredited,
and there is danger that in the end popular prejudice will be created
against those who are worthily entitled to the bounty of the Government.
There has lately been presented to me, on the same day, for approval,
nearly 240 special bills granting and increasing pensions and restoring
to the pension list the names of parties which for cause have been
dropped. To aid Executive duty they were referred to the Pension Bureau
for examination and report. After a delay absolutely necessary they have
been returned to me within a few hours of the limit constitutionally
permitted for Executive action. Two hundred and thirty-two of these
bills are thus classified:
Eighty-one cover cases in which favorable action by the Pension Bureau
was denied by reason of the insufficiency of the testimony filed to
prove the facts alleged.
These bills I have approved on the assumption that the claims were
meritorious and that by the passage of the bills the Government has
waived full proof of the facts.
Twenty-six of the bills cover claims rejected by the Pension Bureau
because the evidence produced tended to prove that the alleged
disability existed before the claimant's enlistment; 21 cover claims
which have been denied by such Bureau because the evidence tended to
show that the disability, though contracted in the service, was not
incurred in the line of duty; 33 cover claims which have been denied
because the evidence tended to establish that the disability originated
after the soldier's discharge from the Army; 47 cover claims which have
been denied because the general pension laws contain no provisions under
which they could be allowed, and 24 of the claims have never been
presented to the Pension Bureau.
I estimate the expenditure involved in these bills at more than $35,000
annually.
Though my conception of public duty leads me to the conclusion, upon the
slight examination which I have been able to give such of these bills as
are not comprised in the first class above mentioned, that many of them
should be disapproved, I am utterly unable to submit within the time
allowed me for that purpose my objections to the same.
They will therefore become operative without my approval.
A sufficient reason for the return of the particular bill now under
consideration is found in the fact that it provides that the name of
Andrew J. Hill be placed upon the pension roll, while the records of the
Pension Bureau, as well as a medical certificate made a part of the
committee's report, disclose that the correct name of the intended
beneficiary is Alfred J. Hill.