1862年 杰弗逊·戴维斯总统 就职演讲
注：戴维斯从未担任过官方意义上的美国总统(President of the United States)，故未收录在美国总统演讲合集中。且戴维斯总统哪怕在19世纪也是较为保守反动的奴隶制支持者，切勿将其话语奉为真理，谨慎参考。
1862年2月22日，杰弗逊·戴维斯在美利坚联盟国首都里士满正式就任总统。
他首次就任时的身份是临时总统，此次就任后就成为了美利坚联盟国的正式总统，然而他的国家寿命还没有他的首个任期久，1865年，戴维斯的任期第四年，他的国家不复存在。他本人也被捕入狱，后来美国联邦政府为防止南北因战争相互仇视而将他释放。
It is our duty to keep the memory of our heroes green. Yet they belong to the whole country; they belong to America. —— Jefferson Davis
我们有责任铭记我们的英雄。他们属于整个国家，他们属于美利坚。 —— 杰弗逊·戴维斯
Fellow-Citizens:
同胞们：
On this the birthday of the man most identified with the establishment of American independence, and beneath the monument erected to commemorate his heroic virtues and those of his compatriots, we have assembled to usher into existence the Permanent Government of the Confederate States. Through this instrumentality, under the favor of Divine Providence, we hope to perpetuate the principles of our revolutionary fathers. The day, the memory, and the purpose seem fitly associated.
在这个为美国独立做出最大贡献的公民的诞辰(译者注：指乔治·华盛顿，其诞辰是1732年2月22日)，我们聚集在为纪念这位公民和其同胞们的英勇品质而修建的纪念碑下，见证了美利坚联盟国正式政府的成立。
It is with mingled feelings of humility and pride that I appear to take, in the presence of the people and before high Heaven, the oath prescribed as a qualification for the exalted station to which the unanimous voice of the people has called me. Deeply sensible of all that is implied by this manifestation of the people's confidence, I am yet more profoundly impressed by the vast responsibility of the office, and humbly feel my own unworthiness.
应人民的一致呼声要求，我心怀谦卑与自豪，在此当着全体人民的面，在上帝的见证之下，宣誓就任我国最高职务。我深知人民的高度信任意味着该职位所肩负的巨大责任，也愈发担忧自身的低下能力。
In return for their kindness I can offer assurances of the gratitude with which it is received; and can but pledge a zealous devotion of every faculty to the service of those who have chosen me as their Chief Magistrate.
我保证会感激回报大家的善意；我发誓，我会竭尽所能地服务每一位选举我担任最高行政官的公民。
When a long course of class legislation, directed not to the general welfare, but to the aggrandizement of the Northern section of the Union, culminated in a warfare on the domestic institutions of the Southern States--when the dogmas of a sectional party, substituted for the provisions of the constitutional compact, threatened to destroy the sovereign rights of the States, six of those States, withdrawing from the Union, confederated together to exercise the right and perform the duty of instituting a Government which would better secure the liberties for the preservation of which that Union was established.
长期以来，联邦试图制定一系列法律，这些法律并非为推进全国人民普遍福祉，而仅为联邦北方侵略者的一己私利，这场立法斗争最终以南方各州举起反抗大旗而结束——在某个政党试图以他们的教条代替宪法契约的法规，即将摧毁各州的主权时，我们南方的六个州退出联邦，然后联合到一起，履行建立新政府的职责，以更好地维护自由，执行联邦成立之初的目标。
Whatever of hope some may have entertained that a returning sense of justice would remove the danger with which our rights were threatened, and render it possible to preserve the Union of the Constitution, must have been dispelled by the malignity and barbarity of the Northern States in the prosecution of the existing war. The confidence of the most hopeful among us must have been destroyed by the disregard they have recently exhibited for all the time-honored bulwarks of civil and religious liberty. Bastiles filled with prisoners, arrested without civil process or indictment duly found; the writ of habeas corpus suspended by Executive mandate; a State Legislature controlled by the imprisonment of members whose avowed principles suggested to the Federal Executive that there might be another added to the list of seceded States; elections held under threats of a military power; civil officers, peaceful citizens, and gentle-women incarcerated for opinion's sake--proclaimed the incapacity of our late associates to administer a Government as free, liberal, and humane as that established for our common use.
有些人曾抱希望，认为只要双方发挥公正精神，我们的权利就不会受到威胁，美国宪法设立的联邦也能得以存续，然而北方各州挑起了现在这场战争，无论大家此前抱什么希望，都已经被北方对我国的深仇大恨和野蛮行径击得粉碎。捍卫人身自由和思想自由最悠久的堡垒被摧毁；许多公民未受起诉、未经司法程序就被关进了监狱；北方行政机关中止了人身保护法令；一个州议会因为其发表的声明，被联邦政府怀疑有脱离联邦的嫌疑，结果议会全体成员都遭到了逮捕；各类型选举在军队的监管下进行；公职人员、爱好和平的公民和温柔的女性，因为表达自己的观点遭到监禁；看到这一切，我们中对北方最抱希望的公民也抛弃了幻想，这一切标志着我们曾经的同胞没有能力建立起一个让我们共同享受自由、共和与人道的政府。
For proof of the sincerity of our purpose to maintain our ancient institutions, we may point to the Constitution of the Confederacy and the laws enacted under it, as well as to the fact that through all the necessities of an unequal struggle there has been no act on our part to impair personal liberty or the freedom of speech, of thought, or of the press. The courts have been open, the judicial functions fully executed, and every right of the peaceful citizen maintained as securely as if a war of invasion had not disturbed the land.
我们维护美利坚祖宗制度的诚意，早已在《美利坚联盟国宪法》及其下属法律中得到了印证，即使在南北争端中，我们显然遭到了不公正对待，但是我们从未有过任何损害过人身自由、思想自由和新闻自由的行为，这也进一步佐证了我们的诚意。我国的法院一直处于开放状态，认真执行着司法职能，我国热爱和平的公民每一项权利都可以得到保障，仿佛完全不受北方侵略战争的影响。
The people of the States now confederated became convinced that the Government of the United States had fallen into the hands of a sectional majority, who would pervert that most sacred of all trusts to the destruction of the rights which it was pledged to protect. They believed that to remain longer in the Union would subject them to a continuance of a disparaging discrimination, submission to which would be inconsistent with their welfare, and intolerable to a proud people. They therefore determined to sever its bonds and establish a new Confederacy for themselves.
美利坚联盟国各州的人民相信，美利坚合众国政府已经被某些特定地区的多数派裹挟，他们会滥用人民最重要的信任，侵犯联邦政府宣誓要保护的权利。我国人民认为，继续留在联邦，我们只会继续遭受不公和区别对待，如果对北方的不公忍气吞声，既不符合我们人民的福祉，也是我们高傲的民族所无法容忍的。于是，我国人民决心切断同联邦之间的纽带，并自己组建一个新的联盟。
The experiment instituted by our revolutionary fathers, of a voluntary Union of sovereign States for purposes specified in a solemn compact, had been perverted by those who, feeling power and forgetting right, were determined to respect no law but their own will. The Government had ceased to answer the ends for which it was ordained and established. To save ourselves from a revolution which, in its silent but rapid progress, was about to place us under the despotism of numbers, and to preserve in spirit, as well as in form, a system of government we believed to be peculiarly fitted to our condition, and full of promise for mankind, we determined to make a new association, composed of States homogeneous in interest, in policy, and in feeling.
我们的革命先辈进行了一次伟大实验，使得各州签订一项庄严契约，为共同达到目标而自愿组成了联邦，但现在某些人掌握了国家大权后，就忘记了人民的权利，他们蔑视法律，凡事只遵从自己的个人意愿，联邦已经被这群窃贼者腐化了。联邦政府已经不再履行其建立时，人民赋予它的任务。这场无声的夺权进展迅速，在我们即将生活在少数人的专制统治下之际，我们将南方各州拯救了出来，我们奋起反抗，从精神层面和制度层面捍卫我们认为符合我们利益、代表人类希望的政府，我们决心让具有共同利益、共同政策、共同感情的各州联合起来。
True to our traditions of peace and our love of justice, we sent commissioners to the United States to propose a fair and amicable settlement of all questions of public debt or property which might be in dispute. But the Government at Washington, denying our right to self-government, refused even to listen to any proposals for a peaceful separation. Nothing was then left to do but to prepare for war.
为展现我们一贯的热爱和平、热爱正义的精神，我们一开始就向合众国政府派遣使者，提议签订一份公平友好的协议，以解决双方争议的国债和财产问题。但是华盛顿政府否定了我们自己建立自治政府的权利，甚至都拒绝听取我们和平分离的提议。除了准备战争之外，我们别无选择。
The first year in our history has been the most eventful in the annals of this continent. A new Government has been established, and its machinery put in operation over an area exceeding seven hundred thousand square miles. The great principles upon which we have been willing to hazard everything that is dear to man have made conquests for us which could never have been achieved by the sword. Our Confederacy has grown from six to thirteen States; and Maryland, already united to us by hallowed memories and material interests, will, I believe, when able to speak with unstifled voice, connect her destiny with the South. Our people have rallied with unexampled unanimity to the support of the great principles of constitutional government, with firm resolve to perpetuate by arms the right which they could not peacefully secure. A million of men, it is estimated, are now standing in hostile array, and waging war along a frontier of thousands of miles. Battles have been fought, sieges have been conducted, and, although the contest is not ended, and the tide for the moment is against us, the final result in our favor is not doubtful.
我国历史的第一年是美洲大陆最不平凡的一年。我们组建了新政府，其管辖范围超过70万平方英里(译者注：换算为公制单位大约是180万平方公里，比我国的新疆自治区还要大)。我们遵循伟大的原则，赌上我们所珍视的一切，去完成那些用武力无法征服的目标。我们的联盟已经从建国之初的6各州发展为今天的13个州(译者注：按照加入时间排序，13个州分别是南卡罗来纳州、密西西比州、佛罗里达州、亚拉巴马州、佐治亚州、路易斯安那州、得克萨斯州、弗吉尼亚州、阿肯色州、田纳西州、北卡罗来纳州、密苏里州、肯塔基州)；马里兰州也在神圣记忆和现实利益的影响下，和我们团结在一起，我相信，当马里兰州能够自由发声的时候，她也会将自身命运同南方各州绑定。我们民族从未如此团结一致地支持宪法的伟大原则，无法以和平方式获得的权利，我们下定决心以武力捍卫，使得这些权利永久属于我们。敌军大约有100万军队在边界数千英里的战线上对我们发动进攻。爆发了许多遭遇战和围城战，虽然目前战争尚未结束，我军处于劣势，但战争毋庸置疑会以我军的胜利而告终。
The period is near at hand when our foes must sink under the immense load of debt which they have incurred, a debt which in their effort to subjugate us has already attained such fearful dimensions as will subject them to burdens which must continue to oppress them for generations to come.
敌军为征服我国，承担了巨额债务，当前他们欠下的债务堪称天文数字，待这些债务将他们压垮之时，我们的胜利就会到来，而侵略者的债务将会持续困扰他们之后的几代人。
We too have had our trials and difficulties. That we are to escape them in future is not to be hoped. It was to be expected when we entered upon this war that it would expose our people to sacrifices and cost them much, both of money and blood. But we knew the value of the object for which we struggled, and understood the nature of the war in which we were engaged. Nothing could be so bad as failure, and any sacrifice would be cheap as the price of success in such a contest.
我们经历过困难与考验。我们未来面对它们也不会选择逃避。在我国卷入这场战争时，我们的人民都知道战争意味着牺牲，意味着我们要散尽财富、抛洒热血。但是我们知道，我们的目标值得我们去捍卫，也明白这场战争的性质。战败是我们绝对不能接受的结果，在这场战争中，只要能取得胜利，再多牺牲也在所不惜。
But the picture has its lights as well as its shadows. This great strife has awakened in the people the highest emotions and qualities of the human soul. It is cultivating feelings of patriotism, virtue, and courage. Instances of self-sacrifice and of generous devotion to the noble cause for which we are contending are rife throughout the land. Never has a people evinced a more determined spirit than that now animating men, women, and children in every part of our country. Upon the first call the men flew to arms, and wifes and mothers send their husbands and sons to battle without a murmur of regret.
现在的战况不仅有阴影，也有曙光。这场大战激起了人民最强烈的感情，唤醒了人类最高尚的品质。这场战争激发了我们的爱国，提升了我们的美德，鼓舞了我们的勇气。公民牺牲自己来成就我们崇高事业的例子在全国境内比比皆是。我国所有地区的男女老幼从未表现出过如此坚定的信念。刚一受到号召，男人们就拿起武器，妻子和母亲毫无悔恨地将她们的丈夫、儿子送上战场。
It was, perhaps, in the ordination of Providence that we were to be taught the value of our liberties by the price which we pay for them.
可能，正是上帝曾经教导我们，自由具有无上价值，因此我们要敢于为其付出代价。
The recollections of this great contest, with all its common traditions of glory, of sacrifice and blood, will be the bond of harmony and enduring affection amongst the people, producing unity in policy, fraternity in sentiment, and just effort in war.
以后每次回忆起这场伟大的战争，回想起我们民族勇争荣耀、不怕牺牲、敢于流血的一贯传统，我国联结的和谐纽带就更加紧密了，我们人民也相互友爱，我们在政治上团结一致，在感情上相互亲如兄弟，在战争中同仇敌忾。
Nor have the material sacrifices of the past year been made without some corresponding benefits. If the acquiescence of foreign nations in a pretended blockade has deprived us of our commerce with them, it is fast making us a self-supporting and an independent people. The blockade, if effectual and permanent, could only serve to divert our industry from the production of articles for export and employ it in supplying the commodities for domestic use.
我们过去一年牺牲了许多战士和资源，但未能取得相应的战果。即使外国因为所谓海上封锁就默默终止了同我们的贸易往来，我们也不畏惧，这只会让我国进一步成为一个独立、自知自足的民族。如果我们永远都被封锁，那么我们就将出口产业转换为只供应国内市场需求的产业。
It is a satisfaction that we have maintained the war by our unaided exertions. We have neither asked nor received assistance from any quarter. Yet the interest involved is not wholly our own. The world at large is concerned in opening our markets to its commerce. When the independence of the Confederate States is recognized by the nations of the earth, and we are free to follow our interests and inclinations by cultivating foreign trade, the Southern States will offer to manufacturing nations the most favorable markets which ever invited their commerce. Cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, provisions, timber, and naval stores will furnish attractive exchanges. Nor would the constancy of these supplies be likely to be disturbed by war. Our confederate strength will be too great to tempt aggression; and never was there a people whose interests and principles committed them so fully to a peaceful policy as those of the Confederate States. By the character of their productions they are too deeply interested in foreign commerce want only to disturb it. War of conquest they cannot wage, because the Constitution of their Confederacy admits of no coerced association. Civil war there cannot be between States held together by their volition only. The rule of voluntary association, which cannot fail to be conservative, by securing just and impartial government at home, does not diminish the security of the obligations by which the Confederate States may be bound to foreign nations. In proof of this, it is to be remembered that, at the first moment of asserting their right to secession, these States proposed a settlement on the basis of the common liability for the obligations of the General Government.
好在，我们凭借自身力量在这场战争中坚持了下来。我们没有请求，也没有接到任何国际援助。但是，这场战争涉及的利益冲突并不仅限我们自己。全世界都希望我国市场能再次向国际开放。待到美利坚联盟国的独立得到世界各国承认，且我们可以不受限制地遵循自身利益和喜好发展商业时，南方联盟的各州将为世界各工业国家提供有史以来利润最高的市场，引得他们的商业前来投资。我们生产的棉花、糖、大米、烟草、给养、木材和航海贮藏物资会吸引全世界来贸易。战争不会干扰以上物资的稳定生产。届时美利坚联盟国的国力将宛如神明，其他国家完全不敢侵犯我国；但是我们不会像其他民族那样侵略好战，我们的利益和原则要求我们完全致力于维护和平。从我国商品的方面来设想，我国出口的商品对国际市场实在太具吸引力了，以至于有些嫉妒的国家想扰乱我国贸易。我们不会发动战争吞并任何地区，因为联盟国的宪法不允许强制吞并。联盟国各州也不可任意发动内战。为证明我们热爱和平，我需提醒各位，南方各州在刚刚脱离联邦时，就向联邦政府提议就如何分配双方此前的共同责任进行和平磋商。法规规定各州可以通过组建一个公平公正的政府来自行实现联合，这一法规固然保守，但是丝毫没有削弱联盟国对外国的安全义务。
Fellow-citizens, after the struggle of ages had consecrated the right of the Englishman to constitutional representative government, our colonial ancestors were forced to vindicate that birthright by an appeal to arms. Success crowned their efforts, and they provided for the posterity a peaceful remedy against future aggression.
同胞们，英国人经历了几个世纪的斗争才建立了立宪代议制政府，我们移民到美洲大陆的祖辈也是通过武力反抗才维护了自己与生俱来的权利。他们的努力都取得了成功，并给子孙后代留下了一种和平解决未来争端的方法。
The tyranny of an unbridled majority, the most odious and least responsible form of despotism, has denied us both the right and the remedy. Therefore we are in arms to renew such sacrifices as our fathers made to the holy cause of constitutional liberty. At the darkest hour of our struggle the Provisional gives place to the Permanent Government. After a series of successes and victories, which covered our arms with glory, we have recently met with serious disasters. But in the heart of a people resolved to be free these disasters tend but to stimulate to increased resistance.
然而北方多数人肆无忌惮的暴政、北方可憎、不负责的专制政府，剥夺了我们的权利和和平解决争端的方法。所以，我们要向我们的祖辈那样，再次为我们的宪法和自由神圣事业做出牺牲。在我们战争最黯淡的时刻，正式政府取代了临时政府。战争初始，我们取得了一系列大捷胜利，让我们手中有数不尽的荣耀，可是后来，我们遭到了重大失败。但是，对于一个有决心取得自由的民族来说，这些失败只会增强他们心中的斗争意识。
To show ourselves worthy of the inheritance bequeathed to us by the patriots of the Revolution, we must emulate that heroic devotion which made reverse to them but the crucible in which their patriotism was refined.
我们必须效仿祖辈们英勇牺牲的精神，这样才能证明我们不愧对独立战争爱国先辈们的遗产，他们虽然倒下了，但是他们的爱国精神在炼炉中得到了升华。
With confidence in the wisdom and virtue of those who will share with me the responsibility and aid me in the conduct of public affairs; securely relying on the patriotism and courage of the people, of which the present war has furnished so many examples, I deeply feel the weight of the responsibilities I now, with unaffected diffidence, am about to assume; and, fully realizing the inequality of human power to guide and to sustain, my hope is reverently fixed on Him whose favor is ever vouchsafed to the cause which is just. With humble gratitude and adoration, acknowledging the Providence which has so visibly protected the Confederacy during its brief but eventful career, to thee, O God, I trustingly commit myself, and prayerfully invoke thy blessing on my country and its cause.
许多同胞在我处理政务时帮我分担，我相信他们的智慧和道德；同时我也坚信我国人民的爱国和勇气，这场战争已经印证了我们人民不惧为国牺牲，我深深感受到了自己即将肩负责任之重大，但看到了我国人民，我丝毫不胆怯；我也知道，仅靠人类的力量去指挥、进行战争是不够的，因此我虔诚地向上帝祈祷，上帝总是赐福于正义事业。哦，上帝啊，我心怀谦卑、感激和对您的崇敬，感谢您在过去短暂但不平凡的时间里庇佑美利坚联盟国，我愿献身自己，热切地祈求您能继续保佑我的祖国，保佑我国事业。
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。
