美国历代总统就职演说--杜鲁门总统,杰弗逊,林肯,罗斯福(中英对照)
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林肯总统就职演说中英文对照此主题相关图片如下:First Inaugural Address of Abraham LincolnMONDAY, MARCH 4, 1861Fellow-Citizens of the United States:In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United S tates to be taken by the President before he enters on the execution of this office."I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement.Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that--I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations and had never recanted them; and more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming Administration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause--as cheerfully to one section as to another.There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution--to this provision as much as to any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause "shall be delivered up" their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath?There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by national or by State authority, but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is done. And should anyone in any case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?Again: In any law upon this subject ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not in any case surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States"?I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed than to violate any of them trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional.It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in succession administered the executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Y et, with all this scope of precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.Again: If the United S tates be not a government proper, but an association of S tates in the nature of contractmerely, can it, as acontract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it--break it, so to speak--but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was "to form a more perfect Union."But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity.It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any S tate or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and Ishall perform it so far as practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself.In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating and so nearly impracticable withal that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices.The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, according to circumstances actually existing and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections.That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events and are glad of any pretext to do it I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak?Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from, will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake?All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right plainly written in the Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily, the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution; certainly would if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibitions, in the Constitution that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by State authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say.From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the Government must cease. There is no other alternative, for continuing the Government is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them, for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this.Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose a new union as to produce harmony only and prevent renewed secession?Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Government. And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may beoverruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes.One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive- slave clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, can not be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other.Physically speaking, we can not separate. We can not remove our respective sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A hu**and and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country can not do this. They can not but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you can not fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you.This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I can not be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others, not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution--which amendment, however, I have not seen--has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have referred none upon him to fixterms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this if also they choose, but the Executive as such has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. Y ou can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. Y ou have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.永久联邦与总统权力亚伯拉罕-林肯第一次就职演讲星期一,1861年3月4日我今天正式宣誓时,并没有保留意见,也无意以任何苛刻的标准来解释宪法和法律,尽管我不想具体指明国会通过的哪些法案是适合施行的•但我确实要建议,所有的人,不论处于官方还是私人的地位,都得遵守那些未被废止的法令,这比泰然自若地认为其中某个法案是违背宪法的而去触犯它,要稳当得多。
历届美国总统就职演讲稿篇一:美国历届总统就职演说华盛顿:First Inaugural Address of George WashingtonTHE CITY OF NEW YORKTHURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1789Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylumof my declining years--a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by anaffectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States aGovernment instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and privategood, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand whichconducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of somany distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President “torecommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Thecircumstances under which I nowmeet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with thosecircumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of arecommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, onanother, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble unionbetween virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right whichHeaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is renderedexpedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in yourdiscernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effectivegovernment, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which Icontemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has beenpleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleledunanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.美国人民的实验乔治-华盛顿第一次就职演讲纽约星期四,1789年4月30日参议院和众议院的同胞们:在人生沉浮中,没有一件事能比本月14日收到根据你们的命令送达的通知更使我焦虑不安,一方面,国家召唤我出任此职,对于她的召唤,我永远只能肃然敬从;而隐退是我以挚爱心憎、满腔希望和坚定的决心选择的暮年归宿,由于爱好和习惯,且时光流逝,健康渐衰,时感体力不济,愈觉隐退之必要和可贵。
美国总统罗斯福就职演讲稿(英文,中文版)美国总统罗斯福就职演讲稿(英文版)President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:This is a day of national consecration. And I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency, I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impels.This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure, as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself --nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunk to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; and the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.And yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered, because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.Primarily, this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.True, they have tried. But their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They only know the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.Yes, the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of that restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy, the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men.Recognition of that falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, and on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation is asking for action, and action now.Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing great -- greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources.Hand in hand with that we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land.Yes, the task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products, and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, the State, and the local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities that have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped by merely talking about it.We must act. We must act quickly.And finally, in our progress towards a resumption of work, we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order. There must be a strict supervision of all banking and creditsand investments. There must be an end to speculation with other people's money. And there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.These, my friends, are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the 48 States.Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time, and necessity, secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy.I favor, as a practical policy, the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment; but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not nationally --narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in and parts of the United States of America -- a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that recovery will endure.In the field of world policy, I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor: the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others; the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize, as we have never realized before, our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take, but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress can be made, no leadership becomes effective.We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and our property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at the larger good. This, I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us, bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in times of armed strife.With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.Action in this image, action to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple, so practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has ever seen.It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. And it is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly equal, wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.But, in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis -- broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.For the trust reposed in me, I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded, a permanent national life.We do not distrust the -- the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.In this dedication -- In this dedication of a Nation, we humbly ask the blessing of God.May He protect each and every one of us.May He guide me in the days to come.美国总统罗斯福就职演讲稿(中文版)胡佛总统,首席法官先生,朋友们:今天,对我们的国家来说,是一个神圣的日子。
历届美国总统就职演讲译文(部分)乔治·华盛顿第一次就职演讲纽约星期四,1789年4月30日美国人民的实验参议院和众议院的同胞们:在人生沉浮中,没有一件事能比本月14日收到根据你们的命令送达的通知更使我焦虑不安,一方面,国家召唤我出任此职,对于她的召唤,我永远只能肃然敬从;而隐退是我以挚爱心憎、满腔希望和坚定的决心选择的暮年归宿,由于爱好和习惯,且时光流逝,健康渐衰,时感体力不济,愈觉隐退之必要和可贵。
另一方面,国家召唤我担负的责任如此重大和艰巨,足以使国内最有才智和经验的人度德量力,而我天资愚饨,又无民政管理的实践,理应倍觉自己能力之不足,因而必然感到难以肩此重任。
怀着这种矛盾心情,我唯一敢断言的是,通过正确估计可能产生影响的各种情况来克尽厥职,乃是我忠贞不渝的努力目标。
我唯一敢祈望的是,如果我在执行这项任务时因陶醉于往事,或因由衷感激公民们对我的高度信赖,因而受到过多影响,以致在处理从未经历过的大事时,忽视了自己的无能和消极,我的错误将会由于使我误人歧途的各种动机而减轻,而大家在评判错误的后果时;也会适当包涵产生这些动机的偏见。
既然这就是我在遵奉公众召唤就任现职时的感想,那么,在此宣誓就职之际,如不热忱地祈求全能的上帝就极其失当,因为上帝统治着宇宙,主宰着各国政府,它的神助能弥补人类的任何不足,愿上帝赐福,侃佑一个为美国人民的自由和幸福而组成的政府,保佑它为这些基本目的而作出奉献,保佑政府的各项行政措施在我负责之下都能成功地发挥作用。
我相信,在向公众利益和私人利益的伟大缔造者献上这份崇敬时,这些活也同样表达了各位和广大公民的心意。
没有人能比美国人更坚定不移地承认和崇拜掌管人间事务的上帝。
他们在迈向独立国家的进程中,似乎每走一步都有某种天佑的迹象;他们在刚刚完成的联邦政府体制的重大改革中,如果不是因虔诚的感恩而得到某种回报,如果不是谦卑地期待着过去有所预示的赐福的到来,那么,通过众多截然不同的集团的平静思考和自愿赞同来完成改革,这种方式是不能与大多数政府的组建方式同日而语的。
First Inaugural Address of Abraham LincolnMONDAY, MARCH 4, 1861Fellow-Citizens of the United States:In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before he enters on the execution of this office."I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement.Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that--I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations and had never recanted them; and more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming Administration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause--as cheerfully to one section as to another.There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution--to this provision as much as to any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause "shall be delivered up" their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath?There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by national or by State authority, but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is done. And should anyone in any case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?Again: In any law upon this subject ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not in any case surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States"?I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed than to violate any of them trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional.It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in succession administered the executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.Again: If the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the natureof contract merely, can it, as acontract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it--break it, so to speak--but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was "to form a more perfect Union."But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity.It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and Ishall perform it so far as practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself.In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating and so nearly impracticable withal that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices.The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, according to circumstances actually existing and with a view anda hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections.That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events and are glad of any pretext to do it I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak?Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from, will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake?All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right plainly written in the Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily, the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution; certainly would if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibitions, in the Constitution that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by State authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say.From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the Government must cease. There is no other alternative, for continuing the Government is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them, for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this.Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose a new union as to produce harmony only and prevent renewed secession?Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects itdoes of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Government. And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes.One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive- slave clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, can not be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other.Physically speaking, we can not separate. We can not remove our respective sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country can not do this. They can not but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you can not fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you.This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I can not be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While Imake no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others, not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution--which amendment, however, I have not seen--has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have referred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this if also they choose, but the Executive as such has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.Second Inaugural Address of Abraham LincolnSATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1865Fellow-Countrymen:At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein anydeparture from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.First Inaugural Address of Ulysses S. Grant。
本文部分内容来自网络整理,本司不为其真实性负责,如有异议或侵权请及时联系,本司将立即删除!== 本文为word格式,下载后可方便编辑和修改! ==总统就职演说篇一:美国历届总统就职演讲(中英文对照)第44任总统奥巴马发表就职演说My fellow citizens:我的同胞们:I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.今天我站在这里,看到眼前面临的重大任务,深感卑微。
我感谢你们对我的信任,也知道先辈们为了这个国家所作的牺牲。
我要感谢布什总统为国家做出的贡献,以及感谢他在两届政府过渡期间给与的慷慨协作。
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to theideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.迄今为止,已经有44个美国总统宣誓就职。
历届美国总统就职演说中英双语
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1933年罗斯福、1949年杜鲁门、1953年艾森豪威尔、1961年肯尼迪、1963年约翰逊、1969年尼克松、1974年福特、1977年卡特、1981年里根、1989年乔治·H·W·布什、1993年克林顿、2001年乔治·W·布什、2009年奥巴马就职演说!·2009年美国第44任总统奥巴马就职演说
·2001年美国总统布什就职演说
·1993年美国总统克林顿就职演说
·1989年美国总统老布什就职演说
·1981年美国总统里根就职演说
·1974年美国总统福特就职演说
·1969年美国总统尼克松就职演说
·1961年美国总统肯尼迪就职演说·1965年美国总统约翰逊就职演说·1953年美国总统艾森豪威尔就职演说·1949年美国总统杜鲁门就职演说·1933年美国总统罗斯福就职演说·1974年美国总统福特就职演说。
历届美国总统就职演讲稿篇一:美国历届总统就职演说华盛顿:First Inaugural Address of George WashingtonTHE CITY OF NEW YORKTHURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1789Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylumof my declining years--a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by anaffectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States aGovernment instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and privategood, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand whichconducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of somany distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President “torecommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Thecircumstances under which I nowmeet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with thosecircumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of arecommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, onanother, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble unionbetween virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right whichHeaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is renderedexpedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in yourdiscernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effectivegovernment, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which Icontemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has beenpleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleledunanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.美国人民的实验乔治-华盛顿第一次就职演讲纽约星期四,1789年4月30日参议院和众议院的同胞们:在人生沉浮中,没有一件事能比本月14日收到根据你们的命令送达的通知更使我焦虑不安,一方面,国家召唤我出任此职,对于她的召唤,我永远只能肃然敬从;而隐退是我以挚爱心憎、满腔希望和坚定的决心选择的暮年归宿,由于爱好和习惯,且时光流逝,健康渐衰,时感体力不济,愈觉隐退之必要和可贵。
Inaugural Address of Harry S. TrumanTHURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1949Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, and fellow citizens, I acceptwith humility the honor which the American people have conferred uponme. I accept it with a deep resolve to do all that I can for thewelfare of this Nation and for the peace of the world.In performing the duties of my office, I need the help and prayers ofevery one of you. I ask for your encouragement and your support. Thetasks we face are difficult, and we can accomplish them only if we worktogether.Each period of our national history has had its special challenges.Those that confront us now are as momentous as any in the past. Todaymarks the beginning not only of a new administration, but of a periodthat will be eventful, perhaps decisive, for us and for the world.It may be our lot to experience, and in large measure to bring about,a major turning point in the long history of the human race. The firsthalf of this century has been marked by unprecedented and brutalattacks on the rights of man, and by the two most frightful wars inhistory. The supreme need of our time is for men to learn to livetogether in peace and harmony.The peoples of the earth face the future with grave uncertainty,composed almost equally of great hopes and great fears. In this time ofdoubt, they look to the United States as never before for good will,strength, and wise leadership.It is fitting, therefore, that we take this occasion to proclaim tothe world the essential principles of the faith by which we live, andto declare our aims to all peoples.The American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired thisNation from the beginning. We believe that all men have a right toequal justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the commongood. We believe that all men have the right to freedom of thought andexpression. We believe that all men are created equal because they arecreated in the image of God.From this faith we will not be moved.The American people desire, and are determined to work for, a worldin which all nations and all peoples are free to govern themselves asthey see fit, and to achieve a decent and satisfying life. Above allelse, our people desire, and are determined to work for, peace onearth--a just and lasting peace--based on genuine agreement freelyarrived at by equals.In the pursuit of these aims, the United States and other like-minded nations findthemselves directly opposed by a regime withcontrary aims and a totally different concept of life.That regime adheres to a false philosophy which purports to offerfreedom, security, and greater opportunity to mankind. Misled by thisphilosophy, many peoples have sacrificed their liberties only to learnto their sorrow that deceit and mockery, poverty and tyranny, are theirreward.That false philosophy is communism.Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequatethat he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule ofstrong masters.Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral andintellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to governhimself with reason and justice.Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause,punishment without trial, and forced labor as the chattel of the state.It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shallproduce, what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think.Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit ofthe individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protectingthe rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of hisabilities.Communism maintains that social wrongs can be corrected only by violence.Democracy has proved that social justice can be achieved through peaceful change.Communism holds that the world is so deeply divided into opposing classes that war is inevitable.Democracy holds that free nations can settle differences justly and maintain lasting peace.These differences between communism and democracy do not concern theUnited States alone. People everywhere are coming to realize that whatis involved is material well-being, human dignity, and the right tobelieve in and worship God.I state these differences, not to draw issues of belief as such, butbecause the actions resulting from the Communist philosophy are athreat to the efforts of free nations to bring about world recovery andlasting peace.Since the end of hostilities, the United States has invested itssubstance and its energy in a great constructive effort to restorepeace, stability, and freedom to the world.We have sought no territory and we have imposed our will on none. Wehave asked for no privileges we would not extend to others.We have constantly and vigorously supported the United Nations andrelated agencies as a means of applying democratic principles tointernational relations. We have consistently advocated and relied uponpeaceful settlement of disputes among nations.We have made every effort to secure agreement on effectiveinternational control of our most powerful weapon, and we have workedsteadily for the limitation and control of all armaments.We have encouraged, by precept and example, the expansion of world trade on a sound and fair basis.Almost a year ago, in company with 16 free nations of Europe, welaunched the greatest cooperative economic program in history. Thepurpose of that unprecedented effort is to invigorate and strengthendemocracy in Europe, so that the free people of that continent canresume their rightful place in the forefront of civilization and cancontribute once more to the security and welfare of the world.Our efforts have brought new hope to all mankind. We have beaten backdespair and defeatism. We have saved a number of countries from losingtheir liberty. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world nowagree with us, that we need not have war--that we can have peace.The initiative is ours.We are moving on with other nations to build an even strongerstructure of international order and justice. We shall have as ourpartners countries which, no longer solely concerned with the problemof national survival, are now working to improve the standards ofliving of all their people. We are ready to undertake new projects tostrengthen the free world.In the coming years, our program for peace and freedom will emphasize four major courses of action.First, we will continue to give unfaltering support to the UnitedNations and related agencies, and we will continue to search for waysto strengthen their authority and increase their effectiveness. Webelieve that the United Nations will be strengthened by the new nationswhich are being formed in lands now advancing toward self-governmentunder democratic principles.Second, we will continue our programs for world economic recovery.This means, first of all, that we must keep our full weight behindthe European recoveryprogram. We are confident of the success of thismajor venture in world recovery. We believe that our partners in thiseffort will achieve the status of self-supporting nations once again.In addition, we must carry out our plans for reducing the barriers toworld trade and increasing its volume. Economic recovery and peaceitself depend on increased world trade.Third, we will strengthen freedom-loving nations against the dangers of aggression.We are now working out with a number of countries a joint agreementdesigned to strengthen the security of the North Atlantic area. Such anagreement would take the form of a collective defense arrangementwithin the terms of the United Nations Charter.We have already established such a defense pact for the Western Hemisphere by the treaty of Rio de Janeiro.The primary purpose of these agreements is to provide unmistakableproof of the joint determination of the free countries to resist armedattack from any quarter. Each country participating in thesearrangements must contribute all it can to the common defense.If we can make it sufficiently clear, in advance, that any armedattack affecting our national security would be met with overwhelmingforce, the armed attack might never occur.I hope soon to send to the Senate a treaty respecting the North Atlantic security plan.In addition, we will provide military advice and equipment to freenations which will cooperate with us in the maintenance of peace andsecurity.Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefitsof our scientific advances and industrial progress available for theimprovement and growth of underdeveloped areas.More than half the people of the world are living in conditionsapproaching misery. Their food is inadequate. They are victims ofdisease. Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their povertyis a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas.For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and the skill to relieve the suffering of these people.The United States is pre-eminent among nations in the development ofindustrial and scientific techniques. The material resources which wecan afford to use for the assistance of other peoples are limited. Butour imponderable resources in technical knowledge are constantlygrowing and are inexhaustible.I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples thebenefits of our store oftechnical knowledge in order to help themrealize their aspirations for a better life. And, in cooperation withother nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needingdevelopment.Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, throughtheir own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materialsfor housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens.We invite other countries to pool their technological resources inthis undertaking. Their contributions will be warmly welcomed. Thisshould be a cooperative enterprise in which all nations work togetherthrough the United Nations and its specialized agencies whereverpracticable. It must be a worldwide effort for the achievement ofpeace, plenty, and freedom.With the cooperation of business, private capital, agriculture, andlabor in this country, this program can greatly increase the industrialactivity in other nations and can raise substantially their standardsof living.Such new economic developments must be devised and controlled tobenefit the peoples of the areas in which they are established.Guarantees to the investor must be balanced by guarantees in theinterest of the people whose resources and whose labor go into thesedevelopments.The old imperialism--exploitation for foreign profit--has no place inour plans. What we envisage is a program of development based on theconcepts of democratic fair-dealing.All countries, including our own, will greatly benefit from aconstructive program for the better use of the world's human andnatural resources. Experience shows that our commerce with othercountries expands as they progress industrially and economically.Greater production is the key to prosperity and peace. And the key togreater production is a wider and more vigorous application of modernscientific and technical knowledge.Only by helping the least fortunate of its members to help themselvescan the human family achieve the decent, satisfying life that is theright of all people.Democracy alone can supply the vitalizing force to stir the peoplesof the world into triumphant action, not only against their humanoppressors, but also against their ancient enemies-- hunger, misery,and despair.On the basis of these four major courses of action we hope to helpcreate the conditions that will lead eventually to personal freedom andhappiness for all mankind.If we are to be successful in carrying out these policies, it isclear that we must havecontinued prosperity in this country and wemust keep ourselves strong.Slowly but surely we are weaving a world fabric of international security and growing prosperity.We are aided by all who wish to live in freedom from fear--even by those who live today in fear under their own governments.We are aided by all who want relief from the lies of propaganda-- who desire truth and sincerity.We are aided by all who desire self-government and a voice in deciding their own affairs.We are aided by all who long for economic security--for the security and abundance that men in free societies can enjoy.We are aided by all who desire freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom to live their own lives for useful ends.Our allies are the millions who hunger and thirst after righteousness.In due time, as our stability becomes manifest, as more and morenations come to know the benefits of democracy and to participate ingrowing abundance, I believe that those countries which now oppose uswill abandon their delusions and join with the free nations of theworld in a just settlement of international differences.Events have brought our American democracy to new influence and newresponsibilities. They will test our courage, our devotion to duty, andour concept of liberty.But I say to all men, what we have achieved in liberty, we will surpass in greater liberty.Steadfast in our faith in the Almighty, we will advance toward a world where man's freedom is secure.To that end we will devote our strength, our resources, and ourfirmness of resolve. With God's help, the future of mankind will beassured in a world of justice, harmony, and peace.【中文译文】:四项主要的行动方针哈里-杜鲁门就职演讲星期四,1949年1月20日我国历史上的各个时期都面临过特殊的挑战。
奥巴马2009年就职演说同胞们:我今天站在这里,因为面前的任务而感到谦卑,因为你们的信任而心存感激,同时铭记先辈们做所出的巨大牺牲。
感谢布什总统为这个国家做出的贡献,同时也谢谢他在整个政权交接期间表现出的慷慨与合作。
迄今已经有44名美国人宣誓就任总统。
这些誓词曾出现在繁荣的上升趋势和如水般平静的和平中,当然,也经常会出现在乌云密布和狂风暴雨之时。
在这各种时刻,美国一直在继续前行,这不仅仅是因为执政的技巧或者有先见之明,而是因为我们的人民一直在坚守先辈们的理想,忠实履行我们的建国宣言。
过去是这样,这一代的美国人仍将会坚持这样做。
众所周知,我们目前正处在危机之中。
我们的国家正在对暴力和仇恨宣战。
我们的经济也被严重削弱,这是一些人贪婪和不负责任的后果,但在做出艰难选择和准备迎接新时代方面,我们出现了集体性的失误。
房屋失去了;工作丢掉了;商业萧条了;我们的卫生保健耗资巨大;我们太多的学校不合格;每天都能找到更多的证据表明我们利用能源的方式使得对手更加强大,并且威胁到了我们整个星球。
这些数据和统计都是危机的表现特征。
虽然无法具备测量,但产生的深远影响是我们的信心受到了侵蚀--担心美国的衰退不可避免,担心下一代会降低他们的期待。
今天我要向你们说的是,我们面临的挑战是真实存在的。
这些挑战很多,而且非常严重,它们不会轻易地或者在短时间内就能得以解决。
但大家也必须认识到,美国,终将会解决这些困难。
今天,我们聚集在这里,是因为我选择用希望来战胜恐惧,用团结来战胜冲突与分歧。
今天,我们来到这里将结束悲戚和错误的承诺,抛弃指责和教条主义这些扼杀我们政治的东西。
我们仍然是一个年轻的国家,但现在应该摒弃充满孩子气的行为,重申我们不朽的精神;选择我们更好的历史;宏扬那些珍贵而且高尚的理念,并将这一代一代地传递下去。
上帝认为天下众生皆平等,众生皆自由,而且都应该拥有追求幸福的机会。
在重申我们国家的伟大时,我们必须明白,伟大绝对不会是一种馈赠,而是要靠我们去努力争取。
Inaugural Address of Harry S. TrumanTHURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1949Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, and fellow citizens, I acceptwith humility the honor which the American people have conferred uponme. I accept it with a deep resolve to do all that I can for thewelfare of this Nation and for the peace of the world.In performing the duties of my office, I need the help and prayers ofevery one of you. I ask for your encouragement and your support. Thetasks we face are difficult, and we can accomplish them only if we worktogether.Each period of our national history has had its special challenges.Those that confront us now are as momentous as any in the past. Todaymarks the beginning not only of a new administration, but of a periodthat will be eventful, perhaps decisive, for us and for the world.It may be our lot to experience, and in large measure to bring about,a major turning point in the long history of the human race. The firsthalf of this century has been marked by unprecedented and brutalattacks on the rights of man, and by the two most frightful wars inhistory. The supreme need of our time is for men to learn to livetogether in peace and harmony.The peoples of the earth face the future with grave uncertainty,composed almost equally of great hopes and great fears. In this time ofdoubt, they look to the United States as never before for good will,strength, and wise leadership.It is fitting, therefore, that we take this occasion to proclaim tothe world the essential principles of the faith by which we live, andto declare our aims to all peoples.The American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired thisNation from the beginning. We believe that all men have a right toequal justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the commongood. We believe that all men have the right to freedom of thought andexpression. We believe that all men are created equal because they arecreated in the image of God.From this faith we will not be moved.The American people desire, and are determined to work for, a worldin which all nations and all peoples are free to govern themselves asthey see fit, and to achieve a decent and satisfying life. Above allelse, our people desire, and are determined to work for, peace onearth--a just and lasting peace--based on genuine agreement freelyarrived at by equals.In the pursuit of these aims, the United States and other like-minded nations findthemselves directly opposed by a regime withcontrary aims and a totally different concept of life.That regime adheres to a false philosophy which purports to offerfreedom, security, and greater opportunity to mankind. Misled by thisphilosophy, many peoples have sacrificed their liberties only to learnto their sorrow that deceit and mockery, poverty and tyranny, are theirreward.That false philosophy is communism.Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequatethat he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule ofstrong masters.Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral andintellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to governhimself with reason and justice.Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause,punishment without trial, and forced labor as the chattel of the state.It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shallproduce, what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think.Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit ofthe individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protectingthe rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of hisabilities.Communism maintains that social wrongs can be corrected only by violence.Democracy has proved that social justice can be achieved through peaceful change.Communism holds that the world is so deeply divided into opposing classes that war is inevitable.Democracy holds that free nations can settle differences justly and maintain lasting peace.These differences between communism and democracy do not concern theUnited States alone. People everywhere are coming to realize that whatis involved is material well-being, human dignity, and the right tobelieve in and worship God.I state these differences, not to draw issues of belief as such, butbecause the actions resulting from the Communist philosophy are athreat to the efforts of free nations to bring about world recovery andlasting peace.Since the end of hostilities, the United States has invested itssubstance and its energy in a great constructive effort to restorepeace, stability, and freedom to the world.We have sought no territory and we have imposed our will on none. Wehave asked for no privileges we would not extend to others.We have constantly and vigorously supported the United Nations andrelated agencies as a means of applying democratic principles tointernational relations. We have consistently advocated and relied uponpeaceful settlement of disputes among nations.We have made every effort to secure agreement on effectiveinternational control of our most powerful weapon, and we have workedsteadily for the limitation and control of all armaments.We have encouraged, by precept and example, the expansion of world trade on a sound and fair basis.Almost a year ago, in company with 16 free nations of Europe, welaunched the greatest cooperative economic program in history. Thepurpose of that unprecedented effort is to invigorate and strengthendemocracy in Europe, so that the free people of that continent canresume their rightful place in the forefront of civilization and cancontribute once more to the security and welfare of the world.Our efforts have brought new hope to all mankind. We have beaten backdespair and defeatism. We have saved a number of countries from losingtheir liberty. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world nowagree with us, that we need not have war--that we can have peace.The initiative is ours.We are moving on with other nations to build an even strongerstructure of international order and justice. We shall have as ourpartners countries which, no longer solely concerned with the problemof national survival, are now working to improve the standards ofliving of all their people. We are ready to undertake new projects tostrengthen the free world.In the coming years, our program for peace and freedom will emphasize four major courses of action.First, we will continue to give unfaltering support to the UnitedNations and related agencies, and we will continue to search for waysto strengthen their authority and increase their effectiveness. Webelieve that the United Nations will be strengthened by the new nationswhich are being formed in lands now advancing toward self-governmentunder democratic principles.Second, we will continue our programs for world economic recovery.This means, first of all, that we must keep our full weight behindthe European recoveryprogram. We are confident of the success of thismajor venture in world recovery. We believe that our partners in thiseffort will achieve the status of self-supporting nations once again.In addition, we must carry out our plans for reducing the barriers toworld trade and increasing its volume. Economic recovery and peaceitself depend on increased world trade.Third, we will strengthen freedom-loving nations against the dangers of aggression.We are now working out with a number of countries a joint agreementdesigned to strengthen the security of the North Atlantic area. Such anagreement would take the form of a collective defense arrangementwithin the terms of the United Nations Charter.We have already established such a defense pact for the Western Hemisphere by the treaty of Rio de Janeiro.The primary purpose of these agreements is to provide unmistakableproof of the joint determination of the free countries to resist armedattack from any quarter. Each country participating in thesearrangements must contribute all it can to the common defense.If we can make it sufficiently clear, in advance, that any armedattack affecting our national security would be met with overwhelmingforce, the armed attack might never occur.I hope soon to send to the Senate a treaty respecting the North Atlantic security plan.In addition, we will provide military advice and equipment to freenations which will cooperate with us in the maintenance of peace andsecurity.Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefitsof our scientific advances and industrial progress available for theimprovement and growth of underdeveloped areas.More than half the people of the world are living in conditionsapproaching misery. Their food is inadequate. They are victims ofdisease. Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their povertyis a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas.For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and the skill to relieve the suffering of these people.The United States is pre-eminent among nations in the development ofindustrial and scientific techniques. The material resources which wecan afford to use for the assistance of other peoples are limited. Butour imponderable resources in technical knowledge are constantlygrowing and are inexhaustible.I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples thebenefits of our store oftechnical knowledge in order to help themrealize their aspirations for a better life. And, in cooperation withother nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needingdevelopment.Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, throughtheir own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materialsfor housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens.We invite other countries to pool their technological resources inthis undertaking. Their contributions will be warmly welcomed. Thisshould be a cooperative enterprise in which all nations work togetherthrough the United Nations and its specialized agencies whereverpracticable. It must be a worldwide effort for the achievement ofpeace, plenty, and freedom.With the cooperation of business, private capital, agriculture, andlabor in this country, this program can greatly increase the industrialactivity in other nations and can raise substantially their standardsof living.Such new economic developments must be devised and controlled tobenefit the peoples of the areas in which they are established.Guarantees to the investor must be balanced by guarantees in theinterest of the people whose resources and whose labor go into thesedevelopments.The old imperialism--exploitation for foreign profit--has no place inour plans. What we envisage is a program of development based on theconcepts of democratic fair-dealing.All countries, including our own, will greatly benefit from aconstructive program for the better use of the world's human andnatural resources. Experience shows that our commerce with othercountries expands as they progress industrially and economically.Greater production is the key to prosperity and peace. And the key togreater production is a wider and more vigorous application of modernscientific and technical knowledge.Only by helping the least fortunate of its members to help themselvescan the human family achieve the decent, satisfying life that is theright of all people.Democracy alone can supply the vitalizing force to stir the peoplesof the world into triumphant action, not only against their humanoppressors, but also against their ancient enemies-- hunger, misery,and despair.On the basis of these four major courses of action we hope to helpcreate the conditions that will lead eventually to personal freedom andhappiness for all mankind.If we are to be successful in carrying out these policies, it isclear that we must havecontinued prosperity in this country and wemust keep ourselves strong.Slowly but surely we are weaving a world fabric of international security and growing prosperity.We are aided by all who wish to live in freedom from fear--even by those who live today in fear under their own governments.We are aided by all who want relief from the lies of propaganda-- who desire truth and sincerity.We are aided by all who desire self-government and a voice in deciding their own affairs.We are aided by all who long for economic security--for the security and abundance that men in free societies can enjoy.We are aided by all who desire freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom to live their own lives for useful ends.Our allies are the millions who hunger and thirst after righteousness.In due time, as our stability becomes manifest, as more and morenations come to know the benefits of democracy and to participate ingrowing abundance, I believe that those countries which now oppose uswill abandon their delusions and join with the free nations of theworld in a just settlement of international differences.Events have brought our American democracy to new influence and newresponsibilities. They will test our courage, our devotion to duty, andour concept of liberty.But I say to all men, what we have achieved in liberty, we will surpass in greater liberty.Steadfast in our faith in the Almighty, we will advance toward a world where man's freedom is secure.To that end we will devote our strength, our resources, and ourfirmness of resolve. With God's help, the future of mankind will beassured in a world of justice, harmony, and peace.【中文译文】:四项主要的行动方针哈里-杜鲁门就职演讲星期四,1949年1月20日我国历史上的各个时期都面临过特殊的挑战。