EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 22, 1888_.
_To the Senate_:
I return without approval Senate bill No. 2616, entitled "An act
granting a pension to James E. Kabler."
This beneficiary enlisted August 10, 1862. He is reported as absent sick
for November and December, 1862; present for January and February, 1863;
on the rolls for March and April he is reported as deserted, and for May
and June as under arrest. On the 17th of September, 1863, after having
been in the service a little over a year, he was mustered out with his
company with the remark "absent without leave and returned to duty with
loss of fifty-two days' pay by order of General Boyle." The charge of
desertion does not appear to have been removed.
He filed a claim for pension in 1870 on account of quinsy alleged to
have been contracted about December 7, 1862, with some evidence to
support the claim. Three medical examinations fail to establish the
existence of this disease in a pensionable degree, and it is reported to
me from the Pension Bureau that in March, 1882, the family physician of
the beneficiary stated that though he had practiced in his family for
eight or nine years he had no recollection of treating him for quinsy or
any other disease.
It seems to me that neither the service nor the alleged disability of
this beneficiary are of a meritorious character.