EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 5, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return without approval House bill No. 4782, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Elizabeth McKay."
The beneficiary named is the widow of Rowley S. McKay, who in 1862 seems
to have been employed as pilot on the ram _Switzerland_. He seems
to have been upon the rolls of two other vessels of the United States,
the _Covington_ and _General Price_, but was discharged by Admiral
Porter in June, 1864, with loss of all pay and emoluments.
He filed an application for pension in 1870, alleging that while on duty
as pilot and in action with the rebel ram _Arkansas_ his hearing
became affected by heavy firing. He also claimed that in February, 1863,
while on the vessel _Queen of the West_, she grounded, and to escape
capture he got off and floated down the river on a cotton bale, and,
being in the water about three hours, the exposure caused a disease of
the urinary organs; and that a few days after, while coming up the river
on a transport, the boat was fired into and several balls passed through
his left thigh. It seems that this claim was not definitely passed upon,
but it is stated that the records failed to show that McKay was in the
service of the United States at the time he alleged the contraction of
disease of the urinary organs and was wounded in the thigh.
The beneficiary named in this bill never made application for pension
to the Pension Bureau, but it appears that she bases her claims to
consideration by Congress upon the allegation that in 1862, while her
husband was acting as pilot of the ram or gunboat _Switzerland_, he
contracted chronic diarrhea, from which he never recovered, and that he
died from the effects of said disease in May, 1874.
It will be observed that among the various causes which the soldier or
sailor himself alleged as the grounds of his application for pension
chronic diarrhea is not mentioned.
There does not appear to be any medical testimony to support the claim
thus made by the widow, and the cause of death is not definitely stated.
Taking all together, it has the appearance of a case, by no means rare,
where chronic diarrhea or rheumatism are appealed to as a basis for a
pension claim in the absence of something more substantial and definite.
The fact that the claim of the beneficiary has never been presented to
the Pension Bureau influences in some degree my action in withholding my
approval of this bill.