1841年 威廉·哈里森总统 就职演讲(上)
1841年3月4日，威廉·哈里森在华盛顿特区正式就任美国第9任总统。
威廉·哈里森来自美国辉格党，他是第一名来自于辉格党的美国总统；他是军人出身，参加过1812年英美战争和多场针对印第安部落的战争。
由于他就任总统时年事已高，就职典礼当日气温又较低，而他的就职演讲稿又过长(全文共8342个单词)，导致他在就职典礼染上了伤寒，伤寒迅速引起了急性肺炎，哈里森总统在典礼结束后身体状况迅速恶化，长期卧床不起，最终于1841年4月4日在华盛顿的白宫逝世，享年68岁。从3月4日到4月4日，他在任时间只有短短一个月，是目前任职时间最短的美国总统，他也是第一名死于任上的美国总统。同时他的演讲也是目前所有美国总统就职演讲中最长的一篇。
在演讲中，哈里森总统表现出了坚定，甚至有些迂腐的共和派立场，他认为美国总统有2届任期还是太长，为做表率，他承诺自己只会担任1届总统；他的口中也可以看出明显的“昭昭天命”价值观。
由于任期过短，加之哈里森总统因重病丧失了执政能力，所以他对内、对外无任何政绩。
他逝世后，美国原副总统约翰·泰勒于1841年4月4日接替他成为美国总统。
注：由于哈里森总统的演讲稿过长，超出单个专栏字数上限，演讲全文将分为两期专栏发布。本专栏为上半部分。
The liberties of a people depend on their own constant attention to its preservation. —— William Henry Harrison
一个民族能否享有自由，取决自己是否时刻注意保护自由。 —— 威廉·亨利·哈里森
Called from a retirement which I had supposed was to continue for the residue of my life to fill the chief executive office of this great and free nation, I appear before you, fellow-citizens, to take the oaths which the Constitution prescribes as a necessary qualification for the performance of its duties; and in obedience to a custom coeval with our Government and what I believe to be your expectations I proceed to present to you a summary of the principles which will govern me in the discharge of the duties which I shall be called upon to perform.
我本打算退休，安度晚年，但受到人民号召来就任这个伟大自由国家的最高行政官，同胞们，我按照宪法规定，在就职总统之前，于众目睽睽之下庄严宣誓；且按照惯例，我觉得大家会希望我陈述自己将来治国理政所采用的的行政原则总结。
It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable in the conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before and after obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter case the pledges and promises made in the former. However much the world may have improved in many respects in the lapse of upward of two thousand years since the remark was made by the virtuous and indignant Roman, I fear that a strict examination of the annals of some of the modern elective governments would develop similar instances of violated confidence.
早在罗马共和国早期，就有一位执政官说过，候选人就任要职前后的行为会有极大的反差，他们就职前各种承诺说的天花乱坠，就职后几乎没人履行诺言。虽然伟大义愤的罗马人说出此言后的2000年里，世界在各方面都向好的方向发展，但我恐怕，如果我们在民选政府内每年做一次严明调查，依然能发现此类背弃人民信任的情况。
Although the fiat of the people has gone forth proclaiming me the Chief Magistrate of this glorious Union, nothing upon their part remaining to be done, it may be thought that a motive may exist to keep up the delusion under which they may be supposed to have acted in relation to my principles and opinions; and perhaps there may be some in this assembly who have come here either prepared to condemn those I shall now deliver, or, approving them, to doubt the sincerity with which they are now uttered. But the lapse of a few months will confirm or dispel their fears. The outline of principles to govern and measures to be adopted by an Administration not yet begun will soon be exchanged for immutable history, and I shall stand either exonerated by my countrymen or classed with the mass of those who promised that they might deceive and flattered with the intention to betray. However strong may be my present purpose to realize the expectations of a magnanimous and confiding people, I too well understand the dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and enabled me to bring to favorable issues other important but still greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me by my country.
虽然人民命令我就任我们伟大联邦的最高行政官之后，他们的责任已尽，但是有人可能会觉得，我有动机让人民产生一种他们本就应该支持我行政原则、观点的错觉；可能在场的人中，就有人会反对我的行政原则，亦或赞成我的行政原则，但怀疑我是否真的会执行这些原则。但仅需几个月，我就将驱散大家的忧虑。尚未运转的新政府为治国所采取的行政原则措施，将成为历史上不朽的一页，所以同胞们请消除对我的怀疑，否则就会将我视为靠欺骗奉承、意图背叛人民之辈。尽管我为宽容自信的美利坚民族实现梦想的希望十分强烈，但我也清楚，人民愿意将如此巨大的权力交于我手中，同时随之而来的还有难以抵抗的诱惑，这次我不能再寄希望于万能的上帝给予我帮助，上帝一直保护着我，使我能够渡过各个难关，但人民既然信任我，我便不可再将主要希望寄托在上帝身上。
The broad foundation upon which our Constitution rests being the people——a breath of theirs having made, as a breath can unmake, change, or modify it——it can be assigned to none of the great divisions of government but to that of democracy. If such is its theory, those who are called upon to administer it must recognize as its leading principle the duty of shaping their measures so as to produce the greatest good to the greatest number. But with these broad admissions, if we would compare the sovereignty acknowledged to exist in the mass of our people with the power claimed by other sovereignties, even by those which have been considered most purely democratic, we shall find a most essential difference.
我国宪法的拥有广大人民作为基础——一部分人民制定了宪法，也有一部分人想要修改、篡改甚至废除宪法——只有民主政府才会拥有宪法，其他政体届无宪法。基于该理论，受到宪法号召的人必须清楚，采取各类措施为最广大的人民谋福利乃是宪法的首要原则。但除开这些泛泛之论，如若我们将我国的人民主权同他国主权对比，即使是跟那些自称完全民主的国家对比，我们同样可以发现一个本质区别。
All others lay claim to power limited only by their own will. The majority of our citizens, on the contrary, possess a sovereignty with an amount of power precisely equal to that which has been granted to them by the parties to the national compact, and nothing beyond. We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.
其他国家所谓的权力限制，实际上只不过是受到它们统治者的个人意志限制。我国则相反，我国的大多数公民都享有国家主权，他们拥有社会契约赐予他们的权力，一丝不多也一丝不少。我们不承认君权神授，我们认为在权力这方面，上帝并没有将人类分为三六九等；所有人都是平等的，只有得到了被治理的人民授权才是合法政府。
The Constitution of the United States is the instrument containing this grant of power to the several departments composing the Government. On an examination of that instrument it will be found to contain declarations of power granted and of power withheld. The latter is also susceptible of division into power which the majority had the right to grant, but which they do not think proper to intrust to their agents, and that which they could not have granted, not being possessed by themselves. In other words, there are certain rights possessed by each individual American citizen which in his compact with the others he has never surrendered. Some of them, indeed, he is unable to surrender, being, in the language of our system, unalienable.
美国宪法就是这么一部文献，其内容包含了此类授权，以及如何将权力分配到政府各部门。只要仔细阅读宪法，就可以看到其中包括人民授予政府的权力和人民保留的权力。后者也包括多数人民有权授予、但没有合适授权人选而保留的权力，以及他们无权授予，却不在自己手上的权力。换而言之，有一部分权利是每一名美国公民都拥有的，而且他不能在任何社会契约中放弃这些权利。部分权利是人民无权放弃的，或者用我们制度的话来说，是不可分割的。
The boasted privilege of a Roman citizen was to him a shield only against a petty provincial ruler, whilst the proud democrat of Athens would console himself under a sentence of death for a supposed violation of the national faith——which no one understood and which at times was the subject of the mockery of all——or the banishment from his home, his family, and his country with or without an alleged cause, that it was the act not of a single tyrant or hated aristocracy, but of his assembled countrymen. Far different is the power of our sovereignty. It can interfere with no one's faith, prescribe forms of worship for no one's observance, inflict no punishment but after well-ascertained guilt, the result of investigation under rules prescribed by the Constitution itself.
罗马公民引以为傲的权利，也只不过能保护他们不受小地方统治者的迫害，而雅典民主人士在因背弃国家信仰而被判死刑时，以接受放逐来寻求慰藉——无人会了解他们的具体情况，他们甚至成为所有人嘲笑的对象——他们因莫须有的罪名而和自己的家人分离，背井离乡，而这一切实际上只不过是某个暴君、贵族的操控，亦或是多数人的暴政。我国的人民主权则大不相同。我国不干涉任何人的信仰，不规定任何宗教形式，也不会因此惩罚任何人，而是在充分调查，确定其有罪后，再根据宪法具体规定进行处罚。
These precious privileges, and those scarcely less important of giving expression to his thoughts and opinions, either by writing or speaking, unrestrained but by the liability for injury to others, and that of a full participation in all the advantages which flow from the Government, the acknowledged property of all, the American citizen derives from no charter granted by his fellow-man. He claims them because he is himself a man, fashioned by the same Almighty hand as the rest of his species and entitled to a full share of the blessings with which He has endowed them. Not with standing the limited sovereignty possessed by the people of the United States and the restricted grant of power to the Government which they have adopted, enough has been given to accomplish all the objects for which it was created. It has been found powerful in war, and hitherto justice has been administered, and intimate union effected, domestic tranquillity preserved, and personal liberty secured to the citizen. As was to be expected, however, from the defect of language and the necessarily sententious manner in which the Constitution is written, disputes have arisen as to the amount of power which it has actually granted or was intended to grant.
以上宝贵的权利，以及几乎同样重要的自由表达自己思想观念的权利，无论是通过书写还是话语，只要不侵犯他人权利，言论自由就应不受限制，同时人人都有从政府产出的利益得到分配的权利，政府产出的利益乃是全体人民之共同财产，美国公民这一权利不是任何同胞的法律赋予的。他享有这些权利，只因为他是个人，他和大家一样出自造物主之手，因此有资格得到上帝赐予全人类的福祉。虽然美国人民拥有的主权有限，他们赋予政府的权力也有限，但这些全力已经足以完成美国建立之初设立的目标。战争已经证明了我们国家是强而有力的，截止至今，我国治理得平等公正，各州紧密地团结在联邦中，维护着国内和平安宁，保护着公民的人身自由。然而，正如早前所预料的那样，宪法的文字并不完善，其起草时的又不得不简洁话语，因此宪法赋予、保留的权力具体是哪些权力，已经在国内引起了争议。
This is more particularly the case in relation to that part of the instrument which treats of the legislative branch, and not only as regards the exercise of powers claimed under a general clause giving that body the authority to pass all laws necessary to carry into effect the specified powers, but in relation to the latter also. It is, however, consolatory to reflect that most of the instances of alleged departure from the letter or spirit of the Constitution have ultimately received the sanction of a majority of the people. And the fact that many of our statesmen most distinguished for talent and patriotism have been at one time or other of their political career on both sides of each of the most warmly disputed questions forces upon us the inference that the errors, if errors there were, are attributable to the intrinsic difficulty in many instances of ascertaining the intentions of the framers of the Constitution rather than the influence of any sinister or unpatriotic motive.
这部文献中涉及里立法部门的部门更是争议巨大，争议不仅包括根据宪法总条款，授予政府行使权力、通过法律、执行法律等具体权力，还包括这些权力本身是否能够授予。不过，我们很欣慰看到多数违反宪法精神内容的行为都遭到了广大人民的制裁。其实，我国有许多以其个人才华和爱国热情而广为人知的政治家，他们在政治生涯中遇到这一类争议巨大的问题时，都有过前后站在两个不同立场上的情况，因此我们可以推断出，如果宪法存在错误的话，这些错误可能是因为我们无法搞清楚制宪者如此规定的真正意图导致的，而不是因为那些政客有邪恶和叛国想法。
But the great danger to our institutions does not appear to me to be in a usurpation by the Government of power not granted by the people, but by the accumulation in one of the departments of that which was assigned to others. Limited as are the powers which have been granted, still enough have been granted to constitute a despotism if concentrated in one of the departments. This danger is greatly heightened, as it has been always observable that men are less jealous of encroachments of one department upon another than upon their own reserved rights. When the Constitution of the United States first came from the hands of the Convention which formed it, many of the sternest republicans of the day were alarmed at the extent of the power which had been granted to the Federal Government, and more particularly of that portion which had been assigned to the executive branch.
不过我觉得，对我国制度所面临的最大威胁并非是政府篡取人民未授予的权力，而是某个政府部门篡取其他部门的权力。虽然人民授予政府的权力有限，但是如果这些权力全部集中在某个政府部门，依然足以形成专制政府。这种威胁日益上升，因为人们更关注自身的权力是否受到侵犯，从而忽视了政府部门权力遭到侵犯的现象。当美国宪法在制宪会议上横空出世时，许多坚定的共和派人士对联邦政府得到的权力之大感到震惊，尤其是总统获得的权力。
There were in it features which appeared not to be in harmony with their ideas of a simple representative democracy or republic, and knowing the tendency of power to increase itself, particularly when exercised by a single individual, predictions were made that at no very remote period the Government would terminate in virtual monarchy. It would not become me to say that the fears of these patriots have been already realized; but as I sincerely believe that the tendency of measures and of men's opinions for some years past has been in that direction, it is, I conceive, strictly proper that I should take this occasion to repeat the assurances I have heretofore given of my determination to arrest the progress of that tendency if it really exists and restore the Government to its pristine health and vigor, as far as this can be effected by any legitimate exercise of the power placed in my hands.
因为这与他们构想中单纯的代议制民主共和国所具有的的特征不相符，而且权力自身也会有集中的趋势，这种趋势在个人集权时更加明显，因此有人认为，共和政府很快就会名存实亡，取而代之的是粉饰之下的君主制。虽然截止到我任职之时，这些爱国者的担忧仍未变成现实；但我确实相信，过去几年的政策和舆论都在朝这个趋势发展(这里是辉格党攻击杰克逊总统的说法)，我觉得我应当借此场合重申我的承诺：如果这种趋势存在，我势必会运用我手中的合法权力阻止其进一步蔓延，并修复共和国政府，使其重新充满活力。
I proceed to state in as summary a manner as I can my opinion of the sources of the evils which have been so extensively complained of and the correctives which may be applied. Some of the former are unquestionably to be found in the defects of the Constitution; others, in my judgment, are attributable to a misconstruction of some of its provisions. Of the former is the eligibility of the same individual to a second term of the Presidency. The sagacious mind of Mr. Jefferson early saw and lamented this error, and attempts have been made, hitherto without success, to apply the amendatory power of the States to its correction.
我再尽可能概括地谈谈让大家悲声载道的不幸根源问题，以及我将运用什么方法解决这些问题。毫无疑问，这些不幸一部分是宪法的缺陷导致的；另一部分，我认为是因为我们对宪法的部分条款存在误解。宪法的缺陷是，允许同一个人有资格担任两届总统。睿智的杰斐逊总统很早就注意到了这一缺陷，并对此深恶痛绝，我们曾多次尝试动用各州的修正权弥补这一缺陷，可惜迄今为止仍未成功。
As, however, one mode of correction is in the power of every President, and consequently in mine, it would be useless, and perhaps invidious, to enumerate the evils of which, in the opinion of many of our fellow-citizens, this error of the sages who framed the Constitution may have been the source and the bitter fruits which we are still to gather from it if it continues to disfigure our system. It may be observed, however, as a general remark, that republics can commit no greater error than to adopt or continue any feature in their systems of government which may be calculated to create or increase the lover of power in the bosoms of those to whom necessity obliges them to commit the management of their affairs; and surely nothing is more likely to produce such a state of mind than the long continuance of an office of high trust.
每一任总统都有权力修正此缺陷，我也一样，许多同胞认为，指出宪法的缺陷不仅无法解决实际问题，反而可能招致民众不满，但是我必须指出伟大的制宪者们在制定宪法时犯下的错误，这是我们当今一切不幸的根源，如果我们任由其损害我国制度，终会自食恶果。总而言之，我们可以看到共和国中有些因素会诱使公职人员心中滋生对权力的野心，这是愚不可及的错误；毫无疑问，长期担任总统这么一个万众瞩目的职位更会助长这种野心。
Nothing can be more corrupting, nothing more destructive of all those noble feelings which belong to the character of a devoted republican patriot. When this corrupting passion once takes possession of the human mind, like the love of gold it becomes insatiable. It is the never-dying worm in his bosom, grows with his growth and strengthens with the declining years of its victim. If this is true, it is the part of wisdom for a republic to limit the service of that officer at least to whom she has intrusted the management of her foreign relations, the execution of her laws, and the command of her armies and navies to a period so short as to prevent his forgetting that he is the accountable agent, not the principal; the servant, not the master. Until an amendment of the Constitution can be effected public opinion may secure the desired object. I give my aid to it by renewing the pledge heretofore given that under no circumstances will I consent to serve a second term.
对权力的野心最能腐蚀、摧毁一名爱国者的高尚情操。这种腐化的思想一旦控制了人心，就会像对黄金的迷恋一样，变得一发不可收拾。这种思想就像人心中的蠕虫一样，随着宿主的壮大而成长，吸取受害者的鲜血以不断变强。如果这一切成真，那么共和国起码应将外交事务、法律事务和军事事务的职务任期限制在较短的时间内，以提醒公职人员他们是代理人，不是负责人；他们是公仆，而非统治者。在相关宪法修正案通过之前，我希望公众舆论可以帮助我们限制公职人员，以达成此目的。为帮助实现这一目标，我再次立下誓言，我绝不寻求第二届总统任期。
But if there is danger to public liberty from the acknowledged defects of the Constitution in the want of limit to the continuance of the Executive power in the same hands, there is, I apprehend, not much less from a misconstruction of that instrument as it regards the powers actually given. I can not conceive that by a fair construction any or either of its provisions would be found to constitute the President a part of the legislative power. It can not be claimed from the power to recommend, since, although enjoined as a duty upon him, it is a privilege which he holds in common with every other citizen; and although there may be something more of confidence in the propriety of the measures recommended in the one case than in the other, in the obligations of ultimate decision there can be no difference. In the language of the Constitution, "all the legislative powers" which it grants "are vested in the Congress of the United States." It would be a solecism in language to say that any portion of these is not included in the whole.
如果为限制行政权在同一人手中而修正宪法缺陷对公众自由造成了威胁，那么我认为，曲解宪法规定总统的权力也会造成一样的恶果。我通读了整个宪法条文，也找不到哪段条款规定了总统享有部分立法权。总统虽然有不可剥夺的提案权，这不仅是总统的义务，也是每一位美国公民都享有的权利；虽然部分情况下，总统的提案会得到更多议员的支持，但这对于最终做出决策的国会来说，这对其职能没有任何影响。用宪法的话语来说，其已将“一切立法权”授予“美国国会”。如果说“一切立法权”不包括总统持有的那部分立法权的话，那这句话肯定是一个病句。
There is no part of the means placed in the hands of the Executive which might be used with greater effect for unhallowed purposes than the control of the public press. The maxim which our ancestors derived from the mother country that "the freedom of the press is the great bulwark of civil and religious liberty" is one of the most precious legacies which they have left us. We have learned, too, from our own as well as the experience of other countries, that golden shackles, by whomsoever or by whatever pretense imposed, are as fatal to it as the iron bonds of despotism. The presses in the necessary employment of the Government should never be used "to clear the guilty or to varnish crime." A decent and manly examination of the acts of the Government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged.
总统可以采取的手段中，没有任何可用于控制公众舆论等肮脏目的的措施。我们祖先受祖国启发，为我们留下的最宝贵遗产之一便是“新闻自由是公民自由和宗教自由的坚实壁垒”(译者注:引用自1809年麦迪逊总统的就职演讲)。我们从我国和他国历史上都可以学到，无论任何人以任何理由给我们戴上多么珠光宝气的枷锁，其都与专制主义的铁链一样致命。媒体在对政府重要工作进行报道时，绝不能帮助其“粉饰错误和消匿罪名”。政府不仅应容忍新闻媒体对其进行适当检查，还应该鼓励这种行为。
Upon another occasion I have given my opinion at some length upon the impropriety of Executive interference in the legislation of Congress——that the article in the Constitution making it the duty of the President to communicate information and authorizing him to recommend measures was not intended to make him the source in legislation, and, in particular, that he should never be looked to for schemes of finance. It would be very strange, indeed, that the Constitution should have strictly forbidden one branch of the Legislature from interfering in the origination of such bills and that it should be considered proper that an altogether different department of the Government should be permitted to do so. Some of our best political maxims and opinions have been drawn from our parent isle. There are others, however, which can not be introduced in our system without singular incongruity and the production of much mischief, and this I conceive to be one.
我曾在其他场合就总统干涉国会立法的行为发表了一些观点——根据宪法规定，总统有义务向国会做出报告，并有权建议采取其相关措施，这并不代表总统就成为了立法权的来源，更不应该由总统主管财政计划。的确很奇怪，宪法本应该严格禁止立法部门干涉财政，财政计划应交由其他政府部门负责才恰当。我们最出色的部分政治格言和观点都汲取自我们的祖先之地，即不列颠岛。但是也有些观点是不该引入的，否则不利于我国制度的和睦健全，我相信财政观点是其中之一。
No matter in which of the houses of Parliament a bill may originate nor by whom introduced——a minister or a member of the opposition—— by the fiction of law, or rather of Constitutional principle, the sovereign is supposed to have prepared it agreeably to his will and then submitted it to Parliament for their advice and consent. Now the very reverse is the case here, not only with regard to the principle, but the forms prescribed by the Constitution. The principle certainly assigns to the only body constituted by the Constitution (the legislative body) the power to make laws, and the forms even direct that the enactment should be ascribed to them. The Senate, in relation to revenue bills, have the right to propose amendments, and so has the Executive by the power given him to return them to the House of Representatives with his objections. It is in his power also to propose amendments in the existing revenue laws, suggested by his observations upon their defective or injurious operation. But the delicate duty of devising schemes of revenue should be left where the Constitution has placed it——with the immediate representatives of the people. For similar reasons the mode of keeping the public treasure should be prescribed by them, and the further removed it may be from the control of the Executive the more wholesome the arrangement and the more in accordance with republican principle.
不管一项法案由议会的上院还是下院提出——也无论是政府大臣还是反对党成员等任何人提出，也不论是根据法律拟制还是根据宪章原则，英王都会先使该方案顺从自己的意愿，再交由议会征求意见和认可。而我们现在的情况和英国恰好相反，不仅是原则不同，宪章的形式也不同。我们的原则认为宪法只应该将制定法律内容、形式和允许法律通过的权力交于一个机构(即立法机构)。参议院有权对财政法案提出修正案，总统若对法案不满，也有权将其交于众议院进一步商议。如果总统认为现行的财政法案有缺陷、害处，也有权提出修正案。但是制定财政计划的伟大使命应交于宪法指定的人——人民的直接代表们。出于同样的原因，人民代表们应该设法保管好国库资金，尤其是防止总统将其据为己有，保险措施越健全，也就越符合共和原则。
Connected with this subject is the character of the currency. The idea of making it exclusively metallic, however well intended, appears to me to be fraught with more fatal consequences than any other scheme having no relation to the personal rights of the citizens that has ever been devised. If any single scheme could produce the effect of arresting at once that mutation of condition by which thousands of our most indigent fellow-citizens by their industry and enterprise are raised to the possession of wealth, that is the one. If there is one measure better calculated than another to produce that state of things so much deprecated by all true republicans, by which the rich are daily adding to their hoards and the poor sinking deeper into penury, it is an exclusive metallic currency. Or if there is a process by which the character of the country for generosity and nobleness of feeling may be destroyed by the great increase and neck toleration of usury, it is an exclusive metallic currency.
谈到这个话题，我们不得不提到货币的特性。有人提出应当完全采用硬通货，尽管这种想法可能用意十分美好，但是我认为其带来的后果之严重，远超任何无关公民权利的事务。我国广大的贫苦同胞在自己的行业通过勤劳和进取获得财富，如果我们采用了这种想法，那么他们的努力成果就会瞬间化为泡影。全面硬通货应当引起全体共和派人士的抵制，因为它会使富人越来越富，穷人越来越穷。还有，我国人民追求慷慨和高尚情感的特性也可能会被无法遏制、被迫容忍的高利贷摧毁。
Amongst the other duties of a delicate character which the President is called upon to perform is the supervision of the government of the Territories of the United States. Those of them which are destined to become members of our great political family are compensated by their rapid progress from infancy to manhood for the partial and temporary deprivation of their political rights. It is in this District only where American citizens are to be found who under a settled policy are deprived of many important political privileges without any inspiring hope as to the future. Their only consolation under circumstances of such deprivation is that of the devoted exterior guards of a camp——that their sufferings secure tranquillity and safety within. Are there any of their countrymen, who would subject them to greater sacrifices, to any other humiliations than those essentially necessary to the security of the object for which they were thus separated from their fellow-citizens? Are their rights alone not to be guaranteed by the application of those great principles upon which all our Constitutions are founded?
美国总统还有其他任务，比如需要监督美国各领地的政府。成为我们这个伟大政治家族的一部分是这些领土的天命，虽然这些领土暂时没有获得政治权利，但是随着它们快速发展成长，终有一天会作为州加入我们。只有在哥伦比亚特区居住的美国公民因为一项政策被剥夺了许多重要政治权利，且在未来也无望获得这些权利。虽然被剥夺了权利，但他们是我们营地外的卫士，他们的牺牲维护了营地内的安宁，这是他们唯一的慰藉。他们为此被迫与同胞分离，蒙受了许多羞辱，做出了许多必要牺牲，难道我们的同胞们有人愿意让他们付出进一步牺牲吗？难道捍卫他们权利的，只有宪法中的伟大原则吗？
We are told by the greatest of British orators and statesmen that at the commencement of the War of the Revolution the most stupid men in England spoke of "their American subjects." Are there, indeed, citizens of any of our States who have dreamed of their subjects in the District of Columbia? Such dreams can never be realized by any agency of mine. The people of the District of Columbia are not the subjects of the people of the States, but free American citizens. Being in the latter condition when the Constitution was formed, no words used in that instrument could have been intended to deprive them of that character. If there is anything in the great principle of unalienable rights so emphatically insisted upon in our Declaration of Independence, they could neither make nor the United States accept a surrender of their liberties and become the subjects——in other words, the slaves——of their former fellow-citizens. If this be true——and it will scarcely be denied by anyone who has a correct idea of his own rights as an American citizen——the grant to Congress of exclusive jurisdiction in the District of Columbia can be interpreted, so far as respects the aggregate people of the United States, as meaning nothing more than to allow to Congress the controlling power necessary to afford a free and safe exercise of the functions assigned to the General Government by the Constitution. In all other respects the legislation of Congress should be adapted to their peculiar position and wants and be conformable with their deliberate opinions of their own interests.
一位伟大的英国演说家和政治家曾对我们说过，独立战争刚开始时，英国最愚蠢的人都在谈及“他们的美洲臣民”。难道我们各州有人希望在哥伦比亚特区拥有自己的臣民吗？只要我在任，这种希望就永远不会变成现实。哥伦比亚特区的人民不是其他各州人民的臣民，他们一样是自由的美国公民。根据美国宪法，只要他们是美国公民，他们的自由就神圣不可侵犯。自由是我们在《独立宣言》中反复强调不可剥夺的权利，他们既不能，美国也不会接受他们交出自己的自由，选择成为他们前同胞的臣民——或者说，奴隶。既然如此，任何对美国公民权利有正确认知的人都不该否认这一点——尊重美国全体人民的前提下，授权国会在哥伦比亚特区拥有专属管辖权是能够理解的，其概念无非就是授予国会必要的管辖权，方便联邦政府自由、安全地行使其职能。在除此之外的其他方面，国会其他立法就应当考虑哥伦比亚特区的特殊地位和需求，仔细思考后做出符合其利益的决定。
I have spoken of the necessity of keeping the respective departments of the Government, as well as all the other authorities of our country, within their appropriate orbits. This is a matter of difficulty in some cases, as the powers which they respectively claim are often not defined by any distinct lines. Mischievous, however, in their tendencies as collisions of this kind may be, those which arise between the respective communities which for certain purposes compose one nation are much more so, for no such nation can long exist without the careful culture of those feelings of confidence and affection which are the effective bonds to union between free and confederated states. Strong as is the tie of interest, it has been often found ineffectual. Men blinded by their passions have been known to adopt measures for their country in direct opposition to all the suggestions of policy.
我此前已经谈过，让联邦政府各部门在自己管辖范围内活动的必要性。有些时候这并非易事，因为他们所负责的权力往往并没有明确的界限。但是这类冲突可能会造成危害，尤其是某些团体可能为了一些特别目的而自己独立建国的情况，这样建立的国家是不可能长久存在的，因为它无法切断自己和联邦内各自由州的联系。虽然各州之间的利息联系十分紧密，但也不见得可以有效阻止这种情况发生。众所周知，人一时上头就会被蒙蔽，不顾一切政策劝解，采取措施建国。
The alternative, then, is to destroy or keep down a bad passion by creating and fostering a good one, and this seems to be the corner stone upon which our American political architects have reared the fabric of our Government. The cement which was to bind it and perpetuate its existence was the affectionate attachment between all its members. To insure the continuance of this feeling, produced at first by a community of dangers, of sufferings, and of interests, the advantages of each were made accessible to all. No participation in any good possessed by any member of our extensive Confederacy, except in domestic government, was withheld from the citizen of any other member. By aprocess attended with no difficulty, no delay, no expense but that of removal, the citizen of one might become the citizen of any other, and successively of the whole.
为抑制或消灭这种不利的感情，我们应当培养出一种利于我们的感情取而代之，这种方法似乎是美国政治缔造者们创建联邦政府形式的基石。联邦内各成员的相依相爱构成了我们牢不可破的纽带。我们最初因面临共同威胁、经历过共同苦难，因共同利益而联合到一起，想要将这种感情延续下去，就必须要做到有福同享。在我们广阔的联邦中，一州除自己州内部的利益外，其他所有利益皆需分享给其他州的公民。一名公民仅需迁移，无需花费，不会拖延，也不会遇到任何阻碍，即可从一州公民成为另一州的公民，自然也是联邦公民。
The lines, too, separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one State from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave no room for misunderstanding. The citizens of each State unite in their persons all the privileges which that character confers and all that they may claim as citizens of the United States, but in no case can the same persons at the same time act as the citizen of two separate States, and he is therefore positively precluded from any interference with the reserved powers of any State but that of which he is for the time being a citizen. He may, indeed, offer to the citizens of other States his advice as to their management, and the form in which it is tendered is left to his own discretion and sense of propriety. It may be observed, however, that organized associations of citizens requiring compliance with their wishes too much resemble the recommendations of Athens to her allies, supported by an armed and powerful fleet.
而且一州公民和另一州公民的政治权利区别分明，不会有任何误解的可能。 任何州的公民都同时享有作为本州公民和美国公民所有的权利，但是一个人在任何情况下都不能同时成为两个州的公民，同样因此，除他自己所在的州之外，他无权干涉其他州的保留权力。他确实可以向其他州的公民就管理问题提出一些建议，其提议的具体形式由他个人视情况合适而自行决定。也可以观察到，有些公民团体强迫别人接受他们的意愿，像极了以前雅典人凭借其强大的武装舰队威胁其盟友接受自己建议的样子。
It was, indeed, to the ambition of the leading States of Greece to control the domestic concerns of the others that the destruction of that celebrated Confederacy, and subsequently of all its members, is mainly to be attributed, and it is owing to the absence of that spirit that the Helvetic Confederacy has for so many years been preserved. Never has there been seen in the institutions of the separate members of any confederacy more elements of discord. In the principles and forms of government and religion, as well as in the circumstances of the several Cantons, so marked a discrepancy was observable as to promise anything but harmony in their intercourse or permanency in their alliance, and yet for ages neither has been interrupted. Content with the positive benefits which their union produced, with the independence and safety from foreign aggression which it secured, these sagacious people respected the institutions of each other, however repugnant to their own principles and prejudices.
其实，这个著名的邦联(译者注:指伯罗奔尼撒战争中雅典领导的提洛同盟)及其所有成员国之所以最终会毁灭，就是因为他们试图领导所有希腊国家，掌管其他国家国内事务的野心，赫尔维蒂联邦(译者注:指瑞士)没有这种野心，因此得以常年不倒，存在至今。赫尔维蒂联邦中的各成员从来没有因制度问题出现过什么争端。你可以观察到这个联邦中各州的政府形式、宗教信仰有明显的差异，看似这个联邦不可能和睦来往、长期存在，然而这么长时间过去了，赫尔维蒂联邦依旧相处和睦。因为这些聪明的人民对联邦带来的利益十分满意，联邦也能确保各州安全，不受外国侵略，他们不强加自己的原则，抛下自己的偏见，尊重彼此的制度。
Our Confederacy, fellow-citizens, can only be preserved by the same forbearance. Our citizens must be content with the exercise of the powers with which the Constitution clothes them. The attempt of those of one State to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy, the certain harbingers of disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction of our free institutions. Our Confederacy is perfectly illustrated by the terms and principles governing a common copartnership. There is a fund of power to be exercised under the direction of the joint councils of the allied members, but that which has been reserved by the individual members is intangible by the common Government or the individual members composing it. To attempt it finds no support in the principles of our Constitution.
同胞们，我们的联邦也只能通过这种宽容精神来维系。我国公民必须对宪法赋予自己的权力感到知足。如果一州人民试图操控其他州的制度，只会引起猜疑和敌视，也势必导致国家出现分裂、暴动、内战的征兆，最终摧毁我们的自由制度。共同协作的条款和原则，在我国得到了完美体现。联邦各州可以在联邦政府共同会议的指导下行使部分权力，但是各州自行保留的权力，是联邦政府和其他州都不可侵犯的。否则就违反了宪法原则。
It should be our constant and earnest endeavor mutually to cultivate a spirit of concord and harmony among the various parts of our Confederacy. Experience has abundantly taught us that the agitation by citizens of one part of the Union of a subject not confided to the General Government, but exclusively under the guardianship of the local authorities, is productive of no other consequences than bitterness, alienation, discord, and injury to the very cause which is intended to be advanced. Of all the great interests which appertain to our country, that of union——cordial, confiding, fraternal union——is by far the most important, since it is the only true and sure guaranty of all others.
我们要一直热切地共同努力，在各州之间培养这种和谐妥协的精神。历史已经充分证明，部分公民煽动大家不要信任联邦政府，只完全接受当地政府的监护，这种行为只会给我们的事业造成痛苦、隔阂、纷争的伤害。团结——友好和睦、相互信任、如兄弟一般的团结才是我国所有利益中最重要的一环，因为它是我国利益中，唯一真诚可靠的保险。
声明：本人仅按照原文翻译内容，演讲内容不代表本人观点。此专栏仅供历史和英语交流学习使用，任何读者皆可引用本人的译本。
希望来学习英语的观众明白：我觉得这些专栏的主要精华在于英语原文，而并非我的译本，我的译本很大程度上只是供来学习历史的观众使用的。本人的英语水平一般，翻译得并不会多么精彩，只能在你看不懂时来帮助你了解这些演讲内容最基本的意思，而且翻译时难免会出现差错，切勿直接完全以我的译本为标准。如发现有翻译错误或者歧义内容，欢迎指正。
希望来学习历史的观众明白：任何历史人物都有一定的局限性，随着时代发展，很多观点看法可能已经不再适用今天的世界，西方的观点也不一定适用于我们。通过了解这些演讲，仅可给我们提供一个更全面了解过去和世界的渠道。我们可以从优秀的历史、当代人物身上学到很多，但是请保持独立思考，理性看待演讲内容，切勿全信或将其奉为真理。
