ile in the military service and in the line of
duty, "in getting over a fence he fell heavily, striking a stone or hard
substance, and received the hernia in his left side."

In December, 1875, thirteen and a half years thereafter, he filed an
application for a pension, which was rejected by the Pension Bureau on
the ground that there was no record of the alleged hernia, and the
claimant was unable to furnish satisfactory evidence of its origin in
the service.

The fact is stated in the committee's report that late in the year 1863
this soldier was transferred to the Invalid Corps, and the records show
that he was thus transferred for a disability entirely different from
that upon which he now bases his claim. He was mustered out in
September, 1864, at the end of his term of service.

I am convinced that the rejection of this claim by the Pension Bureau
was correct, and think its action should not be reversed.

I suppose an injury of the description claimed, if caused by violence
directly applied, is quite palpable, its effect usually immediate, and
its existence easily proved. The long time which elapsed between the
injury and the claimant's application for a pension may be fairly
considered as bearing upon the merits of such application, while the
fact that the claimant was transferred to the Invalid Corps more than
a year after he alleges the injury occurred, for an entirely different
disability, can not be overlooked. In the committee's report the
statement is found that the beneficiary named in the bill was in two
different hospitals during the year 1863, and yet it is not claimed that
the history of his hospital treatment furnishes any proof of the injury
upon which his claim is now based.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 25, 1886_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I return without approval Senate bill No. 1998, entitled "An act for the
relief of John D. Ham," which grants a pension to the party named.

The claimant alleges that he enrolled in the Army in January, 1862,
and was "sworn in at his own home;" that the next day he started on
horseback to go to the regiment he was to join, and that on the way his
horse fell upon his left ankle, whereby he sustained an injury which
entitles him to a pension.

His name is not borne upon any of the rolls of the regiment he alleges
he was on his way to join.

He filed his application for pension in the Pension Bureau October 17,
1879 (sev