EXECUTIVE MANSION, _September 13, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 6371, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Jesse M. Stilwell."
On the 6th day of May, 1885, twenty years after this beneficiary was
discharged from the Army, he filed an application in the Pension Bureau
for a pension, alleging that in December, 1863, one year and eight
months before his discharge, a comrade assaulted him with a stick while
he was sitting in front of his tent preparing for bed and injured his
back. He alleged that the assault was unprovoked and unexpected.
The claim was rejected upon the facts stated, upon the ground that any
injury incurred was not the result of military duty.
Unless the Government is to be held as an insurer against injuries
suffered by anyone in the military service, no matter how incurred, and
also as guarantor of the good and peaceable behavior toward each other
of the soldiers at all times and under all circumstances, this is not a
proper case for the allowance of a pension.