Editing Colorado Territory (section)

===The movement for statehood===
Following the end of the American Civil War, a movement was made for statehood; the United States Congress passed the Admission Act for the territory in late 1865, but it was vetoed by [[Andrew Johnson|President Andrew Johnson]]. For the next eleven years, the movement for territorial admission was stalled, with several close calls. [[Ulysses S. Grant|President Grant]] advocated statehood for the territory in 1870, but Congress did not act.

In the meantime, the territory found itself threatened by lack of [[railway|railroad]]s. By the late 1860s, many in Denver had sold their businesses and moved northward to the [[Dakota Territory]] communities of [[Laramie, Wyoming|Laramie]] and [[Cheyenne, Wyoming|Cheyenne]], which had sprung up along the [[First transcontinental railroad (North America)|transcontinental railroad]]. Faced with the possible dwindling of the town and its eclipse by the new towns to the north, Denverites pooled their capital and built the [[Denver Pacific Railroad]] northward to Cheyenne to bring the rail network to Denver. The [[Kansas Pacific Railway]] was completed to Denver two months later. The move cemented the role of Denver as the future regional metropolis. The territory was finally admitted to the Union in 1876.