not given. On the 21st day of July, 1864, he was
admitted to the Andersonville hospital, and died the same day of
scorbutus.

The father filed his claim for a pension in 1877, alleging his
dependence upon the deceased soldier. It is probably true that the son
while in the Army sent money to the claimant, though he appears to have
been employed as a policeman in the city of Louisville ever since his
son's death, at a fair salary.

The claim thus made was rejected by the Pension Bureau on the ground
that the claimant was not dependent upon his son.

I am entirely satisfied of the correctness of this determination, and if
the records presented to me are reliable I think the fact which appears
therefrom, that the death of the soldier occurred ten months after
desertion and had no apparent relation to any service in the Union Army,
is conclusive against the claim now made.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 19, 1886_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 3826, entitled "An act for the
relief of John Taylor."

By this bill it is proposed to increase the pension of the beneficiary
named to $16 a month. He has been receiving a pension under the general
law, dating from his discharge in 1865. His pension has been twice
already increased, once by the Pension Bureau and once by a special act
passed in 1882. His wound is not such as to cause his disability to
become aggravated by time. The increase allowed by this bill, when
applied for at the Pension Bureau in 1885, was denied on the ground that
"the rate he was receiving was commensurate with the degree of his
disability, a board of surgeons having reported that he was receiving a
liberal rating."

I can discover no just ground for reversing this determination and
making a further discrimination in favor of this pensioner.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 19, 1886_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 5997, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Elizabeth Luce."

The claimant named in this bill is the widow of John W. Luce, who
entered the Army in August, 1861, and who was discharged in January,
1864, for a disability declared at the time in the surgeon's certificate
to arise from "organic stricture of the urethra," which, from his
statement, existed at the time of his enlistment.

Notwithstanding the admission which thus appears to have been made b