en he was discharged for disability, consisting of a
disease of the eye, called in the surgeon's certificate "iritis with
conjunctivitis."

It seems that this claimant enlisted just at the close of the war, and
was connected in a manner with the Army for four months. It is not
probable that he ever saw any actual service, for none is stated in the
papers before me; and it does appear that he spent a large part of his
short term of enlistment in hospitals and under treatment for a trouble
with his eye. As early as May 23, 1865, he was admitted to hospital with
gonorrheal ophthalmia. His claim was rejected by the Pension Bureau on
the ground that this was the cause of his disability, and the inferences
from the proof presented make this extremely probable.

One of the witnesses who testified that the beneficiary caught cold in
his eye in April, 1865, on the Mississippi River is shown to have been
at that time with his regiment and company at Danville, Va.

The circumstances surrounding this case and the facts proved satisfy me
that the determination of the Pension Bureau was correct, and there is
certainly no sentiment in favor of the claimant which justifies the
indulgence of violent presumptions for the purpose of overriding such
determination.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

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 p