EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 23, 1889_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 5807, entitled "An act granting
a pension to John McCool."
This beneficiary served in an Iowa regiment of volunteers from May 27,
1861, to July 12, 1865.
He filed a petition for pension, alleging an accidental wound in the
right thumb while extracting a cartridge from a pistol in August, 1861.
There is no record of any such disability, though it appears that he was
on a furlough about the date of his alleged injury. It appears that he
served nearly four years after the time he fixed as the date of his
injury.
No evidence was filed in support of the claim he filed, and he refused
to appear for examination, though twice notified to do so.
His claim was rejected in May, 1888, no suggestion having been made of
any other disability than the wound in the thumb, upon which his claim
before the Bureau was based.
The report of the committee in the House of Representatives recommending
the passage of this bill contains no intimation that there exists any
disability contracted in the military service, but distinctly declares
the pension recommended a service pension, and states that the
beneficiary is blind.
As long as the policy of granting pensions for disability traceable to
the incidents of army service is adhered to, the allowance of pensions
by special acts based upon service only gives rise to unjust and unfair
discriminations among those equally entitled, and makes precedents which
will eventually result in an entire departure from the principle upon
which pensions are now awarded.