_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 6201, entitled "An act granting
a pension to John Robeson."
The beneficiary named in this bill enlisted August 8, 1862, and was
discharged for disability on the 21st day of November, 1862, after a
service of a little more than three months.
In the certificate of disability upon which his discharge was granted
the captain of the beneficiary's company states that "he has been unfit
for duty for sixty days; that the soldier represents that he has not
done efficient service since enlistment by reason of phthisic, from
which he has suffered since childhood, but has grown worse since
entering the service."
The surgeon of the regiment states in said certificate that "the soldier
has asthma, with which he has been afflicted from his infancy."
Upon this certificate, based necessarily so far as his previous
condition is concerned, this man procured his discharge after doing but
very slight service.
He filed an application for pension in the Pension Bureau in October,
1879, basing his claim upon the allegation that he contracted asthma in
September, 1862, about a month after he entered the service.
Two special examinations were had in his case, and his statement was
taken in each.
On the first examination he said he could not account for the statements
of his captain and surgeon, unless they arose from a remark he made that
he had phthisic when he was small.
On the second he accounted for the statements of the captain and surgeon
by saying that he felt very sick and feared that he could not live if he
remained in the service; that he was suffering with jaundice as well as
asthma; and having been told that he could not be discharged on account
of jaundice, but could on account of asthma, he asked the captain to
tell the surgeon that he had known him to have asthma before enlistment.
He also says that he procured others to tell the same story.
On these examinations there was the usual negative testimony produced of
certain parties who knew the claimant before enlistment and did not know
that he was afflicted. This is balanced by the evidence of others, who
testify that the claimant had asthma before enlistment.
Upon consideration of the character of the ailment, the testimony upon
the two examinations, and the conduct of the beneficiary and his own
admissions, I can not escape the conviction that whatever disability he
had at the date of discharge he had when he enlisted, and that his claim
was properly rejected by the Pension Bureau.