EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 23, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return without approval House bill No. 6170, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Mary A. Van Etten."
In her declaration for a pension, filed July 28, 1885, this claimant
alleges that her husband was drowned upon attempting to cross Braddocks
Bay, near his residence, in the State of New York, on the 16th day of
July, 1875.
It is claimed that in an effort to drive across that bay in a buggy with
his young son the buggy was overturned and both were drowned. The
application for pension was based upon the theory that during his
military service the deceased soldier contracted rheumatism, which so
interfered with his ability to save himself by swimming that his death
may be fairly traced to a disability incurred in the service.
He does not appear to have been treated while in the Army for
rheumatism, though some evidence is presented of his complaining of
rheumatic symptoms.
He was mustered out in 1863, and though he lived twelve years thereafter
it does not appear that he ever applied for a pension; and though he was
drowned in 1875, his widow apparently did not connect his military
service with his death until ten years thereafter.
It seems to me that there is such an entire absence of direct and
tangible evidence that the death of this soldier resulted from any
incident of his service that the granting of a pension upon such a
theory is not justified.