recovered from his attack of yellow fever
if he had been free from the ailments for which he had been pensioned
fourteen years before.

If such speculations and presumptions as this are to be indulged, we
shall find ourselves surrounded and hedged in by the rule that all men
entering an army were free from disease or the liability to disease
before their enlistment, and every infirmity which is visited upon them
thereafter is the consequence of army service.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 23, 1886_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 7162, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Martha McIlwain."

R.J. McIlwain, the husband of the claimant, enlisted in 1861, and was
discharged in 1862 because of the loss of his right leg by a gunshot
wound. He was pensioned for this disability. He died May 15, 1883, from
an overdose of morphia. It is claimed by the widow that her husband was
in the habit of taking morphia to alleviate the pain he endured from his
stump, and that he accidentally took too much.

The case was investigated by a special examiner upon the widow's
application for pension, and his report shows that the deceased had been
in the habit of taking morphia and knew how to use it; that he had been
in the habit of buying 6 grains at a time, and that his death was caused
by his taking one entire purchase of 6 grains while under the influence
of liquor.

In any event it is quite clear that the taking of morphia in any
quantity was not the natural result of military service or injury
received therein.

I concur in the judgment of the Pension Bureau, which rejected the
widow's claim for pension on the ground that "the death of the soldier
was not due to his military service."

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 23, 1886_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I hereby return without approval House bill No. 7931, entitled "An act
increasing the pension of Clark Boon."

This claimant filed his declaration for pension February 3, 1874, in
which he states that he lost his health while a prisoner at Tyler, Tex.

On the 19th day of October, 1874, he filed an affidavit claiming that
he contracted diseases of the heart and head while in the service.
In a further application, filed January 16, 1878, he abandoned his
allegations as to disease, and asks for a pension on account of a
gunshot wound in the left ankle. Medical testimony was produ