EXECUTIVE MANSION, _October 16, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 9106, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Peter Liner."
The beneficiary named in this bill enlisted as a sergeant in the Regular
Army in 1871, and he alleges that he served a previous term of
enlistment, commencing in 1866.
While on a march from one post to another on the frontier, in September,
1874, the beneficiary was severely wounded by the bursting of a gun,
necessitating the amputation of three of his fingers.
The reports of this occurrence develop the fact that the gun which burst
in his hands was a shotgun, and that the accident happened while the
beneficiary was hunting "for his own pleasure or benefit."
His wound was a severe one, and the injured man was probably a good
and faithful soldier, but it seems quite clear to me that it would be
extending the pension theory to an unwarrantable limit to hold the
Government responsible for such an accident.