who had been forward
in asking an enabling Act from Congress were somewhat in advance of
popular sentiment, for when the question of forming a State
government was submitted to direct vote in Colorado it was rejected,
and the same action was taken in Nebraska. But soon afterward (in the
year 1865) the movement for a State government gained strength in both
Territories. Through duly organized conventions and the formation and
adoption of State constitutions, the people indicated a willingness, if
not an active desire, to be admitted to the Union. In Colorado 5,895
votes were cast when the constitution was submitted, and the majority
in favor of the new State was but 155. William Gilpin was elected
governor, and John Evans and Jerome W. Chaffee were chosen senators of
the United States. But when the new senators reached Washington (early
in the year 1866) they found that the policy of the National
Administration on the subject of new States had changed, and that
instead of a friend in the White House, as Mr. Lincoln had steadily
proved, they had a determined opponent in the person of Mr. Johnson.
Congress with reasonable promptness passed the bill in both Houses for
the admission of Colorado, though it was opposed by the more radical
class of Republicans because negroes were excluded from the right of
suffrage. It is a striking illustration of the rapid change of public
sentiment, that in the winter and early spring of 1866 a bill
containing that provision could pass a Congress in which the
Republicans had more than two-thirds of the membership of each branch,
whereas in less than a year negro suffrage was required as the
condition of re-admission of the Southern States.

The Colorado bill passed the Senate by a vote of nineteen to thirteen,
and the House by eighty-one to fifty-seven. It reached the President
on the fifth day of May and was promptly vetoed. Mr. Johnson did not
believe that the establishment of a state government was necessary to
the welfare of the people of Colorado; "nor was it satisfactorily
established that a majority of the citizens of Colorado desire, or are
prepared for, an exchange of the Territorial for a State government."
He thought that Colorado, instead of increasing, had declined in
population. "At an election for a Territorial Legislature in 1861,
10,580 votes were cast; at an election in 1864 only 6,192 votes were
cast; while at the election of 1865 only 5,905 votes have been cast.