THE CONGRESS: Youth v. the Constitution

For years our citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 have, in time of peril, been summoned to fight for America. They should participate in the political process that produces this fateful summons.

—Dwight D. Eisenhower's State of the Union Message, 1954.

The U.S. Senate last week voted 34 to 24 in favor of the amendment that would add to the nation's electorate 6,200,000 youths between 18 and 21. But the vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed. The 24 Senators who blocked the amendment were all Democrats, many of them Southerners, who based their opposition mainly on the...

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