EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 5, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return without approval House bill No. 1059, entitled "An act
to grant a pension to Joseph Romiser."
The Pension Bureau reports that the records of the office fail to show
that an application has been filed in favor of this claimant, though it
is stated in the report of the House committee that such a claim was
made and rejected on the ground that the claimant was not at the time of
injury in the service of the United States.
It certainly appears from the report of the committee that the
beneficiary named in this bill was not in the service of the Government
at such a time, and also that he had not been mustered into the service
of any State military organization. It is stated that he belonged to
Captain Frank Mason's company of volunteers, of Prostburg, in the State
of Maryland.
Whether this company was organized for the purpose of cooperating at any
time with the Union or State forces is not alleged, and it may well have
been existing merely for the purpose of neighborhood protection.
Such as it was, the company was ordered in June, 1861, to proceed to
Cumberland to repel a threatened attack of Confederate forces. Upon
arriving at that place the men were ordered to uncap their muskets. In
doing this, and through the negligence of another member of the company,
whose musket was discharged, the claimant was wounded.
It does not seem to me that the facts in this case, so far as they have
been developed, justify the passage of this act.