Franklin Pierce: “We can afford to wait, but we can not afford to overlook the ark of our security.”

To us of this generation remains the not less noble task of maintaining and extending the national power.

Our forefathers were trained to the wisdom which conceived and the courage which achieved independence by the circumstances which surrounded them, and they were thus made capable of the creation of the Republic.

If a measure so extraordinary in its character and so clearly contrary to treaty stipulations and the contract rights of the Panama Railroad Company, composed mostly of American citizens, should be persisted in, it will be the duty of the…

These results have not been attained without passing through trials and perils, by experience of which, and thus only, nations can harden into manhood.