EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 13, 1889_.
_To the Senate_:
I return without approval Senate bill No. 2514, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Michael Shong."
It appears that the beneficiary named in this bill, under the name of
John M. Johns, enlisted in Company I, Fourteenth New York Volunteers, on
the 17th day of May, 1861, and was discharged May 24, 1863.
In November, 1876, more than thirteen years after his discharge, under
the same name of John M. Johns, he filed an application for pension,
alleging a fever sore on his right leg contracted July 1, 1862, which
resulted in the loss of the leg.
His claim was rejected in November, 1882, after a thorough special
examination, on the ground that the disease of the leg resulting in
amputation was contracted after the soldier's discharge from the
service.
The leg was amputated in February, 1865.
While there is some evidence tending to show lameness in the service and
following discharge, and while one witness swears to lameness and fever
sores in the service, evidence was also produced showing that the
soldier returned home from the Army in good physical condition and that
the disease of his leg first manifested itself in the latter part of
1864.
It will be observed that he served in the Army nearly a year after it is
alleged he contracted his disability, and that though his leg was
amputated in February, 1865, he did not apply for a pension until 1876.
Moreover, the surgeon who amputated his leg testified that the soldier
and his parents stated that he came out of the Army without a scratch;
that on New Year's night in 1865 he became very warm at a dance; that he
went outdoors and was taken with a chill and pain in his side, which
subsequently settled in the leg and caused a gangrenous condition, and
that upon amputating the leg the artery below the knee was found plugged
by a blood clot, which caused the diseased condition of the leg and
foot.
This testimony and the other facts established and the presumptions
arising therefrom clearly indicate, in my opinion, that the claim made
for a pension by this beneficiary is without merit.