EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 6, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return without my approval House bill No. 6648, entitled "An
act for the relief of Edward M. Harrington."
It appears that this claimant was enrolled as a recruit December 31,
1863, and mustered in at Dunkirk, N.Y. He remained at the barracks there
until March, 1864, when he was received at the Elmira rendezvous. From
there he was sent to his regiment on the 7th day of April, 1864.
He was discharged June 15, 1864, upon a surgeon's certificate of
disability, declaring the cause of discharge to be epilepsy, produced by
blows of violence over the hypochondrial region while in the service,
producing a deformity of sternum.
The claimant filed an application for pension in June, 1879, and in that
and subsequent affidavits he alleged that while in barracks at Dunkirk,
N.Y., and about the 9th day of January, 1864, and in the line of duty,
he was attacked by one Patrick Burnes, who struck him upon the head and
stamped upon and kicked him, breaking his collar bone and a number of
ribs, causing internal injury and fits, the latter recurring every two
weeks.
It is hardly worth while considering the character of these alleged
injuries or their connection with the fits with which the claimant is
afflicted.
I am entirely unable to see how the injuries are related to the
claimant's army service.
The Government ought not to be called upon to insure against the
quarrelsome propensities of its individual soldiers, nor to compensate
one who is worsted in a fight, or even in an unprovoked attack, when the
cause of injury is in no way connected with or related to any
requirement or incident of military service.