is presented upon the alleged
opinion of the surgeon living in Detroit, who made the second amputation
in 1863. He says that the pain of the wound obliged the soldier to
take morphine. But it does not appear that he observed the case for a
long time preceding death. Instead of his giving an opinion that the
disability and morphine produced death, he says, as it is reported to
me, after describing the condition of the limb previous to its
amputation in 1863 and immediately thereafter:

According to my opinion, said disability and the constant use of
morphia in consequence of it may have been the cause of his death.

This and the statement of a druggist in Louisville that he sold him
morphine to alleviate pain, and of two different persons with whom he
boarded at that city in 1885 to the same effect, is all the evidence
that I can discover tending in the least to hint that the death of the
pensioner resulted from any cause but sunstroke, which really stands as
the undisputed cause of death.

The allegation in the committee's report that the beneficiary's claim
was rejected by the Pension Bureau on the ground that her husband's
death proceeded from the use of morphine is erroneous. The cause of
rejection is stated to be "that the death cause (sunstroke) was not the
result of the soldier's military service."

We are not, therefore, left to the consideration of the question whether
death from the use of morphine to allay pain can be charged to the
disability incurred, for if death resulted from sunstroke it will hardly
be claimed that it was in any way related to such disability.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _October 16, 1888_

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 6201, entitled "An act granting
a pension to John Robeson."

The beneficiary named in this bill enlisted August 8, 1862, and was
discharged for disability on the 21st day of November, 1862, after a
service of a little more than three months.

In the certificate of disability upon which his discharge was granted
the captain of the beneficiary's company states that "he has been unfit
for duty for sixty days; that the soldier represents that he has not
done efficient service since enlistment by reason of phthisic, from
which he has suffered since childhood, but has grown worse since
entering the service."

The surgeon of the regiment states in said certificate that "the soldier
has asthma, with