EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 12, 1889_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 11052, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Clara M. Owen."
The husband of this beneficiary was pensioned for a gunshot wound in the
left chest and lung, received in action on the 30th day of September,
1864.
He was drowned August 31, 1884.
It appears that he was found in a stream where he frequently bathed, in
a depth of water variously given from 5 to 8 feet. He had undressed and
apparently gone into the water as usual.
Medical opinions are produced tending to show that drowning was not the
cause of death.
No _post mortem_ examination was had, and it seems to me it must be
conceded that a conclusion that death was in any degree the result of
wounds received in military service rests upon the most unsatisfactory
conjecture.