CONGRESS. (PENSIONS.) 



185 



Cox, Crain, Daniel, Dockery, Felton, Findlay, For- 

 ney, Geddes, Eustace Gibson. Gilfillan, R. S. Green, 

 Hanback, Heard, T. J. Henderson, Hires, Hiscock, 

 Houk, Hudd, Jackson, James. King, Laird, Mahoney, 

 Maybury, McComas, Mitchell, Morgan, Muller, Nor- 

 wood, O'Hara, Payne, Payson, Pidcock, Reagan, 

 Beese, Sessions, Smalls. Snyder, Spriggs, J. W. Stew- 

 art, St. Martin, W. J. Stone of Kentucky, Swinburne, 

 Syines, Tarsney. Zacbary Taylor, Wallace, A. J. 

 Weaver, West, Whiting, Wilson 63. 



The full text of the bill was as follows : 



Be it enacted, etc., That in considering the pension 

 claims of dependent parents, the fact and cause of 

 death, and the fact that the soldier left no widow or 

 minor children, having been shown as required by 

 law, it shall be necessary only to show by competent 

 and sufficient evidence that such parent or parents are 

 without other present means of support than their own 

 manual labor or the contributions of others not legally 

 bound for their support : Provided, That no pension 

 allowed under this act shall commence prior to its 

 passage, and in case of applications hereafter made 

 under this act the pension shall commence from the 

 date of the filing of the application in the Pension- 

 Office. 



SEC. 2. That all persons who served three months 

 or more in the military or naval service of the 

 United States in any war in which the United 

 States has been engaged, and who have been honor- 

 ably discharged therefrom, and who are now or who 

 may hereafter be suffering from mental or physical 

 disability, not the result of their own vicious habits or 

 gross carelessness, which incapacitates them for the 

 performance of labor in such a degree as to render 

 them unable to earn a support, and who are dependent 

 upon their daily labor for support, shall, upon making 

 due proof of the fact according to such rules and regu- 

 lations as the Secretary of the Interior may provide in 

 pursuance of this act, "be placed on the list of invalid 

 pensioners of the United States, and be entitled to re- 

 ceive, for such total inability to procure their subsist- 

 ence by daily labor, $12 per month : and such pen- 

 sion shall commence from the date of the filing or the 

 application in the Pension-Office, upon proof that the 

 disability then existed, and continued during the ex- 

 istence of the same in the degree herein provided : 

 Provided. That persons who are now receiving pen- 

 sions under existing laws, or whose claims are pend- 

 ing in the Pension-Office, may, by application to the 

 Commissioner of Pensions, in such forms as he may 

 prescribe, receive the benefits of this act ; but noth- 

 ing herein contained shall be so construed as to allow 

 more than one pension at the same time to the same 

 person or pension to commence prior to the passage 

 of this act: And provided further, That rank in the 

 service shall not be considered in applications filed 

 thereunder. 



SEC. 3. That no agent, attorney, or other person 

 instrumental in the presentation and prosecution of a 

 claim under this act shall demand or receive for his 

 services or instrumentality in presenting and prosecut- 

 ing such claim a sum greater than $5, payable only 

 upon the order of the Commissioner of Pensions, by 

 the pension agent making payment of the pension 

 allowed, except in cases heretofore prosecuted before 

 the Pension-Office, when, in the discretion of the 

 Commissioner of Pensions, a fee of $10 may be allowed 

 in like manner to the agent or attorney of record in 

 the case at the date of the passage of this act ; and 

 any agent, attorney, or other person instrumental in 

 the prosecution of a claim under this act who shall 

 demand or receive a sum greater than that herein pro- 

 vided for, for his services in the prosecution of the 

 claim, shall be subject to the same penalties as pre- 

 scribed in section 4 of the act of July 4, 1884, entitled 

 " An act making appropriations for the payment of 

 invalid and other pensions of the United States for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1885, and for other pur- 

 poses." 



SEC. 4. That section 4716 of the Revised Statutes is 

 hereby modified so that the same shall not apply to 

 this act : Provided. That this act shall not apply to 

 those persons under political disabilities. And no 

 person shall be pensioned under this act for any dis- 

 ability incurred while engaged in the military service 

 against the United States. 



This measure differed from that passed by 

 the Senate at the previous session of Congress 

 in not limiting its provisions to soldiers who 

 had served in the civil war. It came up for 

 discussion in the Senate January 27, and passed 

 that hody without a division. 



Feb. 11, 1887, the President sent in the fol- 

 lowing veto message : 



To the House of Representatives : 



I herewith return without my approval House bill 

 10,457, entitled " An act for the relief of dependent 

 parents and honorably discharged soldiers and sailors 

 who are now disabled and dependent upon their own 

 labor for support." 



This is the first general bill that has been sanctioned 

 by the Congress since the close of the late civil war, 

 permitting a pension to the soldiers and sailors who 

 served in that war upon the ground of service and 

 present disability alone, and in the entire absence of 

 any injuries received by the casualties or incidents of 

 such service. 



While by almost constant legislation since the close 

 of this war, there has been compensation awarded for 

 every possible injury received as a result of military 

 service in the Union Army, and while a great number 

 of laws passed for that purpose have been adminis- 

 tered with great liberality, and have been supple- 

 mented by numerous private acts to reach special 

 cases, there has not, until now, been an avowed de- 

 parture from the principle thus far adhered to respect- 

 ing Union soldiers, that the bounty of the Govern- 

 ment in the way of pensions is generously bestowed 

 when granted to those who in this military service, 

 and in the line of military duty have, to a greater or 

 less extent, been disabled. 



But it is a mistake to suppose that service pensions 

 such as are permitted by the second section of the bill 

 under consideration, are new to our legislation. In 

 1818, thirty-five years after the close of the Revolu- 

 tionary War, they were granted to the soldiers en- 

 gaged in that struggle, conditional upon service until 

 the end of the war, or for a term not less than nine 

 months, and requiring every beneficiary under the 

 act to be one " who is, or hereafter by reason of his 

 reduced circumstances in life shall be, in need of as- 

 sistance from his country for support." Another law 

 of a like character was passed in 1828, requiring serv- 

 ice until the close of the Revolutionary War; and 

 still another, passed in 1832, provided for those per- 

 sons not included in the previous statute, but who 

 served two years at some time during the war, and 

 giving a proportionate sum to those who had served 

 not less than six months. 



A service pension law was passed for the benefit of 

 the soldiers of 1812, in the year 1871 fifty-six years 

 after the close of that war which required only sixty 

 days' service; and another was passed in 1878 sixty- 

 three years after the war requiring only fourteen 

 days' service. 



'The service pension bill passed at this session of 

 Congress, thirty-nine years after the close of the 

 Mexican War, for the benefit of the soldiers of that 

 war, requires either some degree of disability or de- 

 pendency, or that the claimant under its provisions 

 should be sixty-two years of age ; and in either case 

 that he should have served sixty days or been actu- 

 ally engaged in a battle. 



It will be seen that the bill of 1818, and the Mexi- 

 can pension bill being thus passed nearer the close of 

 the wars in which its beneficiaries were engaged tluia 

 the others one thirty-five years and the other thirty- 



