.jpg?w=1)
Details
CLEVELAND, Grover. Autograph letter signed ("Grover Cleveland"), as President, to John C. Black, Commissioner of Pensions, Washington, D. C., 23 May 1887. 6 pages, folio, ruled paper, Executive Mansion stationery.
CLEVELAND URGES A "LIBERAL" ATTITUDE TOWARDS A DISABLED CIVIL WAR VETERAN caught in a bureaucratic web. An unusually lengthy Presidential letter on the late application of an insane Civil War veteran. "After a little examination of the Statute...involving the claim of Thos. S. Hopkins for arrears of pension, I have arrived at a conclusion which I propose to give you for what it is worth, without seeking other legal advice..." The 25 January 1879 Pension Act permitted claims for back pensions, "without any limitations of time...This introduced the principle of allowing pensions to date from time of death or discharge." An amended statute allowed pensions to commence from "the time of actual disability if this occurred after discharge."
One suspects that the Congressional intent here was to allow for the fact that a veteran's condition might worsen over time. It also imposed a time limit for applications: 1 July 1880. But for this, and "other statutes of limitation," Cleveland points out, the law always made exceptions for extraordinary cases, such as "infants and insane persons" who could not be expected to meet the statutory deadline. This "reasonable construction" should "always be brought to bear in the treatment of the subjects of pension...In my opinion, as [a] matter of law, if you find that Mr Hopkins was insane...so that he was prevented from making his application...you have the right to examine his claim on its merits..." Hopkins's case, Cleveland says, appeals "most strongly to sympathy."
CLEVELAND URGES A "LIBERAL" ATTITUDE TOWARDS A DISABLED CIVIL WAR VETERAN caught in a bureaucratic web. An unusually lengthy Presidential letter on the late application of an insane Civil War veteran. "After a little examination of the Statute...involving the claim of Thos. S. Hopkins for arrears of pension, I have arrived at a conclusion which I propose to give you for what it is worth, without seeking other legal advice..." The 25 January 1879 Pension Act permitted claims for back pensions, "without any limitations of time...This introduced the principle of allowing pensions to date from time of death or discharge." An amended statute allowed pensions to commence from "the time of actual disability if this occurred after discharge."
One suspects that the Congressional intent here was to allow for the fact that a veteran's condition might worsen over time. It also imposed a time limit for applications: 1 July 1880. But for this, and "other statutes of limitation," Cleveland points out, the law always made exceptions for extraordinary cases, such as "infants and insane persons" who could not be expected to meet the statutory deadline. This "reasonable construction" should "always be brought to bear in the treatment of the subjects of pension...In my opinion, as [a] matter of law, if you find that Mr Hopkins was insane...so that he was prevented from making his application...you have the right to examine his claim on its merits..." Hopkins's case, Cleveland says, appeals "most strongly to sympathy."