EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 22, 1886_.
_To the Senate_:
I return without approval Senate bill No. 1288, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Robert Holsey."
This claimant enlisted in 1862, and though he appears to have been sick
on two occasions during his term of service, he remained with his
company until it was mustered out in 1865.
This soldier was really sick during the time he remained in the Army,
and in this respect his claim for a pension has a better origin than
many that are presented. But the fact must be recognized, I suppose,
that every army ailment does not necessarily result in death or
disability.
In 1882, seventeen years after his discharge, this soldier filed his
declaration for a pension, alleging that in 1863 he contracted
intermittent fever, affecting his lungs, kidneys, and stomach.
A board of surgeons, upon an examination made in 1882, find disease of
kidneys, but no indication of lung and stomach trouble; and a medical
referee reported in 1885 that there had been no disease of the stomach
and lungs since the filing of the claim, and that the difficulty
affecting the kidneys had no relation to the sickness for which the
claimant had been treated while in the Army.
I am of the opinion that a correct conclusion was reached when the
application for pension in this case was denied by the Pension Bureau.