EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 10, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 149, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Rachael Barnes."
The husband of this beneficiary served in the Regular Army of the United
States from February 24, 1838, to February 24, 1841.
In 1880 he applied for a pension, alleging that he contracted disease of
the eyes during the year 1840 while serving in Florida.
Pending the examination of his application, and on the 24th day of
March, 1882, he committed suicide by hanging. His widow filed a claim
for pension, alleging that he died of insanity, the result of disease
of the head and eyes. Her claim was rejected on the ground that his
insanity, forty-one years after discharge from the service, had no
connection with his military service.
In July, 1886, a special act was passed granting a pension to the widow,
which met with Executive disapproval.
At the time the soldier committed suicide he was 68 years old. Upon the
facts I hardly think insanity is claimed. At least there does not appear
to be the least evidence of it, unless it be the suicide itself. It is
claimed, however, and with good reason, that he had become despondent on
account of the delay in determining his application for a pension and
because he supposed that important evidence to establish his claim which
he expected would not be forthcoming. It is very likely that this
despondency existed and that it so affected the mind of this old soldier
that it led to his suicide. But the fact remains that he took his own
life in a deliberate manner, and that the affection of his eyes, which
was the disability claimed, was not in a proper sense even the remote
cause of his death.
I confess that I have endeavored to relieve myself from again
interposing objections to the granting of a pension to this poor and
aged widow. But I can not forget that age and poverty do not themselves
justify gifts of public money, and it seems to me that the according of
pensions is a serious business which ought to be regulated by principle
and reason, though these may well be tempered with much liberality.
I can find no principle or plausible pretext in this case which would
not lead to granting a pension in any case of alleged disability arising
from military service followed by suicide. It would be an unfair
discrimination against many who, though in sad plight, have been refused
relief in similar circumstances, and would establish an exceedingly
troublesome and dangerous precedent.