Sold – Grover Cleveland Recites the Causes of His Veto of a Private Pension Bill

The Arrears of Pension Act was the most significant and costly piece of pension legislation of the post–Civil War period. The act provided that all soldiers’ pensions commence from the date of discharge, not from the date the pension law was passed, forcing the government to retroactively pay arrears at the same rates an original pension. Pushed by a well-organized veterans’ lobby, it received only eight negative votes, excluding the southern congressmen and senators, most of whom abstained. Moreover, although the vast majority of deserving pensioners had long since filed for pensions (they had between 1865-1879 to do so) and were enjoying the prospect of obtaining a windfall for a limited term of years before their filings years ago, the desire for a large lump sum pushed many veterans who had not previously filed claims to do so. Many deemed these late-filed claims questionable. And between existing pensioners and new applicants, the expense for pensions threatened the national treasury. To limit late claims, an amendment was passed requiring that arrears applications be filed by July 1, 1880, which left scant time for the new claims to be filed.

Thomas S. Hopkins was an attorney and Department Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. In November 1880 he filed for a pension alleging that while in the service, he contracted malarial fever and chronic diarrhea, and was seized with convulsions. A pension of $50 a month was granted to him in June 1881, dating from the time of filing his application. However, the limitation in the law to allow him retroactivity was not met, as he filed a year too late. Many people found themselves in Hopkins’ shoes, and they came upon a way out of their dilemma – have Congress pass a special bill for their relief waiving the date limitation. Hopkins used this exact method and a bill was passed entitling him to about $9,000 of back pension, a large sum.

President Cleveland took office promising financial responsibility and vetoed hundreds of these pension bills as unwarranted raids on the U.S. Treasury. Hopkins’ relief bill was one of those vetoed, and his veto message stated:?“This is claimed upon the ground that the soldier was so sick from the time of the passage of the act creating the limitation up to the date allowed him to avail himself of the privileges of the act that he could not file his claim. I think the limitation thus fixed a very wise one, and that it should not, in fairness to other claimants, be relaxed for causes not mentioned in the statute; nor should the door be opened to applications of this kind. The beneficiary named in this bill had fifteen years after the accruing of his claim, and before it is alleged that he was incapacitated, within which he might have filed his application and entitled himself to the back pension now applied for. The facts here presented come so far short of furnishing a satisfactory excuse for his delay that, in my judgment, the discrimination asked in his favor should not be granted.” Thus, Cleveland’s veto was based on delay, or to use a legal term, laches. On March 3, 1887, that veto was sustained.

This left Hopkins with one alternative – appeal through channels to the Commissioner of Pensions John Black and President for a reversal of determination. The matter came to the President in May 1887, with Black’s recommendation that they seek counsel from the Attorney General’s office. Cleveland instead seized control of the case himself.  Autograph Letter Signed as President, Executive Mansion letterhead, six large pages, Washington, May 23, 1887, to John Black, Commissioner of Pensions. “…I have arrived at a conclusion which I propose to give you…without seeking legal advice as was proposed.” He pointed out that the amendment provided the limitation “within which application must be filed in order to gain the advantages of its provisions.”?He continued that the July 1, 1880 date was required for a filing by “all persons then having claims entitling them to pensions.” The law’s “intention was to fix that limit,” and Cleveland then discussed the few statutory exemptions, the primary one being insanity of the applicant. He believed that if Hopkins was not entitled to apply for a pension until March 1880 and was insane between then and July 1880, he would have a case. But he could have applied before and was not insane then. The President follows by turning to the basis of his veto of the Hopkins bill, confirming that if, contrary to the case, “under law Mr. Hopkins had no right to arrears until March 3rd, it weakens very much the argument of the veto based on laches.” Cleveland finishes on a different note. “There are circumstances surrounding this case which appeal most strongly to sympathy; but there are also circumstances connected with it even in the light of the additional facts furnished that invoke the most careful…examination.”

This is about as long an ALS as president as we can recall seeing by any chief executive, nor could there be a more thorough disposition on any matter for which a president is largely known and remembered.