EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 6, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 8807, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Harriet E. Cooper."
The husband of this beneficiary served as a major in an Illinois
regiment from September 3, 1862, to April 1, 1863, when his resignation
was accepted, it having been tendered on account of business affairs.
He was pensioned for rheumatism from April, 1863, and died October 3,
1883.
It is admitted on all hands that Major Cooper drank a good deal, but the
committee allege that they can not arrive at the conclusion that death
was attributable to that cause.
There is some medical testimony tending to show that death was caused
from rheumatism, but one physician gives it as his opinion that death
resulted from rheumatism and chronic alcoholism.
The physician who last attended the soldier testifies that the cause
of death was chronic alcoholism. This should be the most reliable of
all the medical testimony, and taken in connection with the conceded
intemperate habits of the deceased and the fact, that the brain was
involved, it satisfies me that the rejection of the widow's claim by
the Pension Bureau on the ground that the cause of death was mainly
intemperance was correct.