[Footnote 17: See Executive order of September 24, 1864, Vol. VI, pp.
240-241.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _October 12, 1888_.
_To the Senate_:
I return without approval Senate bill No. 3276, entitled "An act
granting restoration of pension to Sarah A. Woodbridge."
The first husband of this beneficiary, Anson L. Brewer, was an
additional paymaster in the Army, and died February 2, 1866, from
injuries received in an explosion of a steamer.
His widow, the beneficiary, was pensioned at the rate of $25 a month
from the date of heir husband's death until October 21, 1870, when she
remarried, becoming the wife of Timothy Woodbridge.
Two children, who were minors at the time she was pensioned, became 16
years of age in April, 1870, and July, 1874, respectively.
Upon the remarriage of the beneficiary her pension stopped under the law.
It is now proposed to restore her to the pension roll, notwithstanding
the fact that her second husband is still alive.
Many cases have occurred in which pensions have been awarded by special
acts to the widows of soldiers who, having remarried, were a second time
made widows and rendered destitute by the death of their second
husbands. I have not objected to such charitable legislation.
But I think this is the first time that it has been proposed to grant a
pension after such remarriage when the second husband still survives.
It seems to me that such a precedent ought not to be established.
If in pension legislation we attempt to determine the cases of this
description in which the second husband can not or does not properly
maintain the soldier's widow whom he has married, we shall open the door
to much confusion and uncertainty, as well as unjust discrimination.
I am glad to learn from a statement contained in the committee's report
that this beneficiary, though in a condition making the aid of a pension
very desirable, has a small income derived from property inherited from
her mother.