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.
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