of
an experiment on a larger scale. I yield to no one in attachment to that
rule of general suffrage which distinguishes our policy as a nation.
But there is a limit, wisely observed hitherto, which makes the ballot
a privilege and a trust, and which requires of some classes a time
suitable for probation and preparation. To give it indiscriminately to
a new class, wholly unprepared by previous habits and opportunities to
perform the trust which it demands, is to degrade it, and finally to
destroy its power, for it may be safely assumed that no political truth
is better established than that such indiscriminate and all-embracing
extension of popular suffrage must end at last in its destruction.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, _January 28, 1867_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I return to the Senate, in which House it originated, a bill entitled
"An act to admit the State of Colorado into the Union," to which I can
not, consistently with my sense of duty, give my approval. With the
exception of an additional section, containing new provisions, it is
substantially the same as the bill of a similar title passed by Congress
during the last session, submitted to the President for his approval,
returned with the objections contained in a message bearing date the
15th of May last, and yet awaiting the reconsideration of the Senate.

A second bill, having in view the same purpose, has now passed both
Houses of Congress and been presented for my signature. Having again
carefully considered the subject, I have been unable to perceive any
reason for changing the opinions which have already been communicated to
Congress. I find, on the contrary, that there are many objections to the
proposed legislation of which I was not at that time aware, and that
while several of those which I then assigned have in the interval gained
in strength, yet others have been created by the altered character of
the measures now submitted.

The constitution under which the State government is proposed to be
formed very properly contains a provision that all laws in force at the
time of its adoption and the admission of the State into the Union shall
continue as if the constitution had not been adopted. Among those laws
is one absolutely prohibiting negroes and mulattoes from voting. At the
recent session of the Territorial legislature a bill for the repeal of
this law, introduced into the council, was almost unanimously rejected;
and at