EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 11, 1887_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return without my approval House bill No. 10457, entitled
"An act for the relief of dependent parents and honorably discharged
soldiers and sailors who are now disabled and dependent upon their own
labor for support."
This is the first general bill that has been sanctioned by the Congress
since the close of the late civil war permitting a pension to the
soldiers and sailors who served in that war upon the ground of service
and present disability alone, and in the entire absence of any injuries
received by the casualties or incidents of such service.
While by almost constant legislation since the close of this war there
has been compensation awarded for every possible injury received as a
result of military service in the Union Army, and while a great number
of laws passed for that purpose have been administered with great
liberality and have been supplemented by numerous private acts to reach
special cases, there has not until now been an avowed departure from the
principle thus far adhered to respecting Union soldiers, that the bounty
of the Government in the way of pensions is generously bestowed when
granted to those who, in this military service and in the line of
military duty, have to a greater or less extent been disabled.
But it is a mistake to suppose that service pensions, such as are
permitted by the second section of the bill under consideration, are new
to our legislation. In 1818, thirty-five years after the close of the
Revolutionary War, they were granted to the soldiers engaged in that
struggle, conditional upon service until the end of the war or for a
term not less than nine months, and requiring every beneficiary under
the act to be one "who is, or hereafter by reason of his reduced
circumstances in life shall be, in need of assistance from his country
for support." Another law of a like character was passed in 1828,
requiring service until the close of the Revolutionary War; and still
another, passed in 1832, provided for those persons not included in the
previous statute, but who served two years at some time during the war,
and giving a proportionate sum to those who had served not less than six
months.
A service-pension law was passed for the benefit of the soldiers of 1812
in the year 1871, fifty-six years after the close of that war, which
required only sixty days' service; and another was passed in 1878,
sixty-three years after the war, requiring only fourteen days' service.
The service-pension bill passed at this session of Congress, thirty-nine
years after the close of the Mexican War, for the benefit of the
soldiers of that war, requires either some degree of disability or
dependency or that the claimant under its provisions should be 62 years
of age, and in either case that he should have served sixty days or been
actually engaged in a battle.
It will be seen that the bill of 1818 and the Mexican pension bill,
being thus passed nearer the close of the wars in which its
beneficiaries were engaged than the others--one thirty-five years and
the other thirty-nine years after the termination of such wars--embraced
persons who were quite advanced in age, assumed to be comparatively few
in number, and whose circumstances, dependence, and disabilities were
clearly defined and could be quite easily fixed.
The other laws referred to appear to have been passed at a time so
remote from the military service of the persons which they embraced that
their extreme age alone was deemed to supply a presumption of dependency
and need.
The number of enlistments in the Revolutionary War is stated to be
309,791, and in the War of 1812 576,622; but it is estimated that on
account of repeated reenlistments the number of individuals engaged in
these wars did not exceed one-half of the number represented by these
figures. In the war with Mexico the number of enlistments is reported to
be 112,230, which represents a greater proportion of individuals engaged
than the reported enlistments in the two previous wars.
The number of pensions granted under all laws to soldiers of the
Revolution is given at 62,069; to soldiers of the War of 1812 and their
widows, 60,178; and to soldiers of the Mexican War and their widows,
up to June 30, 1885, 7,619. The latter pensions were granted to the
soldiers of a war involving much hardship for disabilities incurred as a
result of such service; and it was not till within the last month that
the few remaining survivors were awarded a service pension.
The War of the Rebellion terminated nearly twenty-two years ago; the
number of men furnished for its prosecution is stated to be 2,772,408.
No corresponding number of statutes have ever been passed to cover every
kind of injury or disability incurred in the military service of any
war. Under these statutes 561,576 pensions have been granted from the
year 1861 to June 30, 1886, and more than 2,600 pensioners have been
added to the rolls by private acts passed to meet cases, many of them of
questionable merit, which the general laws did not cover.
On the 1st day of July, 1886, 365,763 pensioners of all classes were
upon the pension rolls, of whom 305,605 were survivors of the War of the
Rebellion and their widows and dependents. For the year ending June 30,
1887, $75,000,000 have been appropriated for the payment of pensions,
and the amount expended for that purpose from 1861 to July 1, 1886, is
$808,624,811.51.
While annually paying out such a vast sum for pensions already granted,
it is now proposed by the bill under consideration to award a service
pension to the soldiers of all wars in which the United States has been
engaged, including of course the War of the Rebellion, and to pay those
entitled to the benefits of the act the sum of $12 per month.
So far as it relates to the soldiers of the late civil war, the bounty
it affords them is given thirteen years earlier than it has been
furnished the soldiers of any other war, and before a large majority of
its beneficiaries have advanced in age beyond the strength and vigor of
the prime of life.
It exacts only a military or naval service of three months, without any
requirement of actual engagement with an enemy in battle, and without a
subjection to any of the actual dangers of war.
The pension it awards is allowed to enlisted men who have not suffered
the least injury, disability, loss, or damage of any kind, incurred in
or in any degree referable to their military service, including those
who never reached the front at all and those discharged from rendezvous
at the close of the war, if discharged three months after enlistment.
Under the last call of the President for troops, in December, 1864,
11,303 men were furnished who were thus discharged.
The section allowing this pension does, however, require, besides a
service of three months and an honorable discharge, that those seeking
the benefit of the act shall be such as "are now or may hereafter be
suffering from mental or physical disability, not the result of their
own vicious habits or gross carelessness, which incapacitates them for
the performance of labor in such a degree as to render them unable to
earn a support, and who are dependent upon their daily labor for
support."
It provides further that such persons shall, upon making proof of the
fact, "be placed on the list of invalid pensioners of the United States,
and be entitled to receive for such total inability to procure their
subsistence by daily labor $12 per month; and such pension shall
commence from the date of the filing of the application in the Pension
Office, upon proof that the disability then existed, and continue during
the existence of the same in the degree herein provided: _Provided_,
That persons who are now receiving pensions under existing laws, or
whose claims are pending in the Pension Office, may, by application to
the Commissioner of Pensions, in such form as he may prescribe, receive
the benefit of this act."
It is manifestly of the utmost importance that statutes which, like
pension laws, should be liberally administered as measures of
benevolence in behalf of worthy beneficiaries should admit of no
uncertainty as to their general objects and consequences.
Upon a careful consideration of the language of the section of this bill
above given it seems to me to be so uncertain and liable to such
conflicting constructions and to be subject to such unjust and
mischievous application as to alone furnish sufficient ground for
disapproving the proposed legislation.
Persons seeking to obtain the pension provided by this section must be
now or hereafter--