EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 6, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return herewith without approval House bill No. 5414, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Maria Cunningham."
The husband of the beneficiary named in this bill enlisted January 29,
1862, and was discharged January 20, 1865.
He applied for a pension in 1876, alleging a shell wound in the head.
His claim was rejected on the ground that there appeared to be no
disability from that cause. No other injury or disability was ever
claimed by him, but at the time of his examination in 1876 he was found
to be sickly, feeble, and emaciated, and suffering from an advanced
stage of saccharine diabetes.
His widow filed an application for a pension in 1879, alleging that her
husband died in December, 1877, of spinal disease and diabetes,
contracted in the service.
Her claim was rejected because evidence was not furnished that the cause
of the soldier's death had its origin in the military service.
There seems to be an entire absence of proof of this important fact.