It was so satisfactorily proven that the disease which indirectly caused the death of the claimant's husband was not contracted in the service.

I am convinced that the difficulty alleged by this applicant had its origin in causes existing prior to his enlistment.

I hereby return without approval bill No. 1406.

The pension should not have been granted, and it was withdrawn.

The fact that fourteen years elapsed after he claimed to have been injured by a fall from a wagon before he discovered that enlargement of the lungs and heart was his real difficulty is calculated to at least raise a doubt as to the validity of his claim.

It seems to me that a stronger case than this should be presented to justify the passage of a special act.

I neither believe it to be a duty nor a kindness to the worthy citizens for whose benefit our scheme of pensions was provided to permit the diversion of the nation's bounty to objects not within its scope and purpose.

I herewith return without approval Senate bill No. 1290, entitled 'An act granting a pension to David W. Hamilton.'

I find nothing in my examination of the facts connected with the case which impeaches the value of the surgeon's certificate upon which the adverse action of the Pension Bureau was predicated.

To the Senate of the United States: A bill which originated in the Senate, entitled 'An act granting a pension to Edward Ayers,' and numbered 363, is herewith returned without approval.

There is not a particle of proof or a fact stated either in the committee's report or the records in the Pension Bureau, so far as they are brought 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.