EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 26, 1889_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return without approval House bill No. 10791, entitled "An
act granting a pension to Marinda Wakefield Reed."
This beneficiary filed an application for pension in November, 1876,
alleging that her husband, William A. Reed, died in September of that
year of consumption contracted in the line of military duty.
The records show that the soldier was in hospital in the year 1864 for
chronic diarrhea and intermittent fever.
On the 5th day of November, 1864, he was injured in a railroad accident
while on his way home to vote at the Presidential election of that year.
The beneficiary claimed in August, 1885, in support of her application
for pension that those injuries resulted in consumption, from which the
soldier died, and the favorable report of the House committee to which
the bill herewith returned was referred seems to proceed upon the same
theory.
Nothing appears which satisfactorily connects this injury, which was
received in November, 1864, with death from consumption in 1876.
Another difficulty in the case is found in the fact that when the
soldier was injured he was clearly not engaged in any military duty nor
was his injury in any degree attributable to military service.