On the record
The settlers-on the frontier have suffered much from the incursions of predatory bands, and large parties of emigrants to our Pacific possessions have been massacred with impunity.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Pierce addresses the violence faced by settlers on the frontier and the dangers posed by predatory bands.
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More from Franklin Pierce
All experience affirms that wherever private enterprise will avail it is most wise for the General Government to leave to that and individual watchfulness the location and execution of all means of communication.
Our Government exists under a written compact between sovereign States, uniting for specific objects and with specific grants to their general agent.
Though the naval disparity would be less, the greater extent and more exposed condition of our widespread commerce would give any of them a like advantage over us.
But while the present is bright with promise and the future full of demand and inducement for the exercise of active intelligence, the past can never be without useful lessons of admonition and instruction.
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