to my notice, tending to show that the claimant was in
hospital or under medical care a single day during the whole term of his
enlistment.

The report of the committee contains the following statement:

The record evidence proves that he was in this engagement, but there is
no proof from this source that he was wounded. By numerous comrades who
were present it is proven that he was hurt by the explosion of a shell
as claimed. It is also shown that he has been disabled ever since; and
the examining surgeon specifically describes the wound, and twice
verifies that he is permanently disabled. From the fact that a man was
exceedingly liable to injury under the circumstances in which he was
placed, and from the evidence of eyewitnesses, the committee are of
opinion that he was wounded as alleged.

A wound from a shell causing the person injured to be "disabled ever
since" usually results in hospital or medical treatment. Not only is
there no such claim made in this case, but, on the contrary, it appears
that the claimant served in his regiment two years and nearly eight
months after the alleged injury, and until he was mustered out.

It is represented to me by a report from the Pension Bureau that after
his alleged wound, and in May or June, 1863, the claimant deserted, and
in July of that year was arrested in the State of Indiana and returned
to duty without trial. If this report is correct, the party now seeking
a pension at the hands of the Government for disability incurred in the
service seems to have been capable of considerable physical exertion,
though not very creditable, within a few weeks after he claims to have
received the injury upon which his application is based.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 24, 1886_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I return without approval Senate bill No. 1630, entitled "An act
granting a pension to James C. Chandler."

It appears from the report of the committee to whom this bill was
referred and from an examination of the official records that the
proposed beneficiary first enlisted on the 27th day of August, 1861,
and about nine months thereafter, on the 1st day of June, 1862, was
discharged on account of disability arising from chronic bronchitis.

Notwithstanding the chronic character of his alleged disability, he
enlisted again on the 3d day of January, 1864, seventeen months after
such discharge.

No statement is presented