EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 28, 1888_.
_To the Senate_:
I return without approval Senate bill No. 835, entitled "An act for the
relief of Elisha Griswold."
The beneficiary named in this bill, which awards him a pension, enlisted
in January, 1864, and was discharged February 12, 1866.
His claim for pension, as developed in the report of the Senate
Committee on Pensions, is based upon the allegation that in January,
1866, he fell from a swing which had been put up in the building
occupied as a barrack and struck on his head and shoulder.
The committee report in favor of the bill upon the grounds that the
soldier was injured "while engaged in recreation" and that "such
recreation is a necessary part of a soldier's life."
The beneficiary filed an application in January, 1880, and in support of
such application he filed on the 16th day of July, 1886, an affidavit in
which he testifies that at the time of the injury he was in prison at
San Antonio, Tex., upon charges the character of which he could not
ascertain, and that the swing from which he fell was erected by himself
and others for pastime and exercise.
It will be seen that the injury complained of is alleged to have been
sustained less than a month before his discharge. There is, however, no
record of any disability.
His claim based upon this injury was, in my opinion, properly rejected
as having no connection with his military service, and I think the facts
in his case as herein detailed do not justify the award of a pension to
him by special enactment.
On the 23d day of March, 1888, after the introduction of the bill
herewith returned, the beneficiary, apparently having abandoned the
claim upon which the bill is predicated, filed another application for a
pension in the Pension Bureau, alleging that he contracted diarrhea and
malarial poisoning in the service. This application is still pending.