1992年美国民主党全国代表大会上接受总统候选人提名的演讲

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1992年美国民主党全国代表大会上接受总统候选人提名的演讲
                               威廉·杰弗逊·克林顿 1992.7.16.于纽约

   这是我学英语以来第一次尝试翻译这样长篇的演讲。“我们的现任总统说，在经济复苏开始之前，失业人数总会有些增加。我想，失业人数必须再增加一个，真正的经济复苏才能开始。那个人就是你，总统先生！”在习惯了和谐一致有中国特色的中国选举后读到这样的句子，我的惊讶可想而知——原来还有这样的选举！原来对“在任领导”可以这样批评！翻译时我尽可能直译，只在克林顿排比使用“I will”时作了灵活处理。初次试译，错误难免，欢迎教正。——梦回濠梁


理查兹州长、布郎主席、狄更斯市长——我们热情的东道主、我的代表伙伴们、我的美国同胞们、我为之骄傲的阿尔·戈尔：

    戈尔他说今晚他来到这里，是因为在电视直播之前他总是要做些“热身运动”。而我今年参加总统竞选有一个而且只有一个原因：我希望回到这个大会并且完成我四年前开始的那个演讲。

    昨天晚上，马里奥·柯默教给我们应怎样作一个真正的接受总统候选人提名的演讲，他也让我们明白为什么我们必须使我们国家的航船驰向新的航道。今晚，我要跟你们谈谈我对于未来的希望，我对于美国人民的信念，以及我对于我们将共同建设的那种国家的憧憬。

    我要向我在竞选活动中的杰出的同事们致敬：汤姆·哈金、鲍勃·克里、堂·怀尔德、杰里·布郎和保罗·桑贾斯。

    悬在我们共同搭建的讲台上的那句话表明了一切：美国所能采取的政策——最重要的家庭政策、城市政策、劳工政策、少数民族政策、以及外交政策，必然是促使那能带来更多高技术高报酬的就业机会的自由经济进一步扩展的政策。因此，以所有那些劳作纳税、养育子女、奉公守法的人民的名义，以所有那些构成了我们被遗忘的中产阶级的勤奋工作的美国人的名义，我骄傲地接受美国总统候选人的提名。

    我是中产阶级的产儿，当我成了美国总统，你们将不再被遗忘。

    我们——你们和我——相逢在一个特殊的历史时刻：冷战已经结束，苏维埃共产主义已经崩溃；我们的价值观——自由、民主、人权、自由竞争——已取得全球性的胜利。然而，就在我们于海外赢得冷战的同时，我们却输掉了在国内创造平等的经济机会和争取社会正义的战役。

    既然我们已经改变了世界，是时候了——让我们改变美国。

    我要告诉那些贪婪的势力和现状的维护者：你们的时代曾经到来但已经过去，现在是改变美国的时代！

    今天晚上，我的数以千万计的美国同胞没有工作，数千万的人们更辛苦的工作只能换来更低廉的报酬。我们的现任总统说，在经济复苏开始之前，失业人数总会有些增加。我想，失业人数必须再增加一个，真正的经济复苏才能开始。那个人就是你，总统先生！

    这次选举就是要把权力交还到你们的手中，就是要使政府站回到你们一边，就是要把人民放在第一位。

    你们知道，这些话我说遍全国。无论何时，只要我这么说，总有人靠进我——就像本周在曼哈顿东区亨利街住宅区的一次社区会议一个年轻人所做的那样。

    他说：“那些听起来不错，比尔。但是，你是政客，我为什么要相信你呢？

    今晚，我要尽可能坦率地告诉你们，我是谁，我信仰什么，我要把美国引向何方。

我从未见过我父亲。在我出生前三个月，他驾车从芝加哥赶往阿肯色去看望我妈妈，一路上下着雨，他在汽车失事时丧生。

    那以后，妈妈必须独自抚养我们。因此当她返回路易斯安那州学习护理专业时，我们只能同外祖父外祖母住在一起。直到今天，我依然清晰地记得透过当时只有三岁的眼睛所目睹的情形：妈妈她跪在站台上，哭着把我交给坐在开往阿肯色的列车上的外祖母，

    妈妈忍受了那痛苦，因为她知道，只有做出牺牲才能给我更好的生活。是妈妈教育了我。她教我懂得家庭、勤奋工作和牺牲的真谛。她镇定地承受一次又一次灾难的打击，她领着全家——我哥哥和我——共同渡过艰苦的岁月。

    作为孩子，我曾目睹她每天离家上班，而那时代对一个在职妈妈来说并不总是那么容易。

    作为成人，我又目睹她战胜乳腺癌，在如何保持勇气方面再给我上了一课，她总是，总是要我去奋斗。

    这就是为什么，我将为之奋斗以创造高收入的工作机会，使今天的父母能支付抚养子女的费用。

    这就是为什么，我为之奋斗以确保每一个美国人都能得到那拯救了我母亲生命的医疗保障，确保妇女在医疗保障上能得到和男子一样的重视。

    这就是为什么，我决心为之奋斗以确保妇女在这个国家享有尊严，受到尊重——不管她们是操持家务、外出工作，还是身兼二任。

    你们想知道我的战斗精神从何而来？它全都源自我的妈妈。谢谢你，妈妈。我爱你！

每当我想起全体美国人的机会平等，我就想起我的外祖父。他经营我们霍普小镇的一家乡村杂货店。那时还没有政府发放的食品票，所以当他的顾客——不管他们是白人或黑人，只要他们努力工作尽其所能——他们身无分文走进小店，呃，他总是给他们食物，他只是随便记上一笔。遇到此类情况，我也是照此办理。

    还在我长大到足以独力照看柜台之前，我已从他那里学会如何去尊重那些通常被人蔑视的人们。

    我外祖父只念了高中——普通高中，然而在那乡村杂货店里，关于什么是上帝眼中的平等，他比乔治城大学所有的教授教给我的还要多；关于每一个体的基本价值，他比牛津大学所有的哲学家教给我的还要多；关于法律下公平审判的必要性，他教给我的比耶鲁法学院所有的法学家还要多。

    如果你想知道，我那要不分种族把全体人民团结起来的承诺的热情从何而来。它全都源自我的外祖父。

    从另一个人身上，我也获益良多。有这么一个人，她勤奋工作逾二十年来帮助我们的孩子们：她牺牲大量的时间以确保我们的学校不会误人子弟；她用一年时间走遍全国，倾听、学习、研究，出席家庭教师协会、学校董事会以及市政厅的有关会议，推出了得到各地区验证的学校改革的一揽子计划。同时她在律师界奠定了良好的事业基础，她又是一位了不起的充满爱心的母亲。

    那个人就是我妻子。

    希拉里告诉我，她告诉我，所有的孩子都能学习，我们每个人都有义务帮助他们。

    因此，如果你们想知道为什么我如此关心我们的孩子们我们的未来，这一切都源自希拉里。我爱你。

坦白说，我对那些向我们宣讲家庭价值的华盛顿的政客们感到厌倦。我们的家庭是有价值的，但我们的政府却一钱不值。

    我要这样一个美国，在那里，家庭的价值活在我们的行动中，而不只是停留在我们的演说里。我要这样一个美国，她包容每一个家庭——每一个传统的大家庭，每一个双亲的或单亲的家庭，每一个收养的家庭，所有这些家庭。

    对我们国家中那些选择放弃他们的孩子，忽视对孩子的抚养义务的父亲们，我想说几句话：担负起抚养孩子的义务来，否则我们将强迫你们这样做。因为政府不能抚养孩子，而父母却能，你们责无旁贷，

    今晚，我要告诉美国的每一个孩子——那些失去父亲或母亲正在长大成人的孩子——我了解你们的感受，你们也是独一无二的。

    你们对美国很重要。你们不能听任别人告诉你们，说什么你们不能成为你们所希望成就的那种人。如果别的政治家让你们觉得你们不属于他们的家庭，来吧，成为我们之中的一员。

    过去十二年的所有错误中最让我愤怒的莫过于我们的政府将我们所珍视的价值弃如敝屣，而我们的政治家却把它们挂在嘴上喋喋不休，我烦透了这个。

    我从小就相信，“美国梦”应该建立于“努力工作，必有回报”的基石之上。我们看到的却是华盛顿的家伙把这一道德信条抛诸脑后。

    太久了，那些奉公守法保持信仰的人得到的是不公正的待遇，那些投机取巧弄虚作假的人却往往好处占尽。

    人们工作得比以往更辛苦，他们陪伴孩子的时间比以往更少。以往参加家庭教师协会或童子军活动的时间被挤占，取而代之的是夜间和周末的加班。他们的收入不断下降，他们的税负持续上升，而医疗保健、住宅和教育的开支更是涨上了天。

    与此同时，越来越多的最优秀的人正在陷入贫困，尽管他们每周工作四十个小时。

    我们的人民呼唤改革，但政府却挡在道上——它已经被特权阶层的私利所劫持。它忘了就站在这里的那些真正为政府“埋单”的人们。我们必须超越华盛顿那僵化的政见，给人民一个他们应得的政府，一个为他们服务的政府。

    总统，一个总统应该是推动进步的强大力量。但只是在今天，我才体会到林肯总统的感受——内战期间，当麦克莱将军不愿进攻时，林肯问他：“如果你不用你的军队，我能借用它吗？”

    同样地，我说，乔治·布什，如果你不用你的权力来帮助美国，站一边去，让我来吧！

    我们的国家正在落后。总统成了一种失败的经济理论的俘虏。自从罗纳尔多·里根和布什执政以来，我们的工资收入已从世界第一滑落到第十三。

    四年前，总统候选人布什说：“美国是一个特殊的地方，不是在联合国的名册处于阿尔巴尼亚和津巴布韦之间的随随便便的一个什么国家。”今天，在现任总统布什的领导下，我们的经济已然可悲地落到了德国和斯里兰卡之间。

    对绝大多数美国人而言，总统先生，比起你的政府执政以前，生活变得更少仁爱，更少温暖。

    听听他们的呼声，在这方面多一些努力！

    我们的国家滑落得如此之远，如此之快，以致几个月前，日本首相竟然说，他“同情美国”。“同情”？当我成了你们的总统，这世界上其他地方，其他地方的人们将不再怜悯地俯视美国，而是再一次怀着敬意仰视我们。

    为解决我们的经济问题，乔治·布什做了什么呢？

    呃，四年前今天，他许诺要带来一千五百万新的就业机会，现在他却造成了超过一千四百万的职位短缺。阿尔·戈尔和我能做得更好。

    他增加那些驾驶皮卡货车的人们的税负，却为那些乘坐豪华轿车的人们减税。我们能做得更好。

他承诺要平衡预算，却始终光说不练。事实上，他向国会提交的预算案使我们的负债翻了将近一番。更糟的是，他浪费数十亿美元并削减我们在教育以及创造就业机会方面的投资。我们能做得更好。

    因此，如果你厌恶并倦怠于一个不努力创造就业机会的政府，如果你厌恶并倦怠于一个机关算尽来对付你的税收系统，如果你厌恶并倦怠于债务的急剧增长和对未来投资的持续削减；或者，像人权先驱范尼·娄·哈默所说，你只是厌恶并倦怠于总是“厌恶并倦怠”，那么，加入我们，让我们一同工作一同胜利，我们能够使我们的国家成为真正意义上的国家。

    眼下，乔治·布什正在谈论一个美妙的“竞赛”，可他却没有任何“竞赛”计划来重建美国——从城市到郊区到乡村——以使我们能够参与全球经济的竞争并再次赢得胜利。但是，我有。

他不敢同庞大的保险公司、官僚机构较量以控制医疗保健的成本，给我们一种所有美国人都支付得起的保健服务。但是，我敢。

    他甚至不愿采纳他自己的艾滋病防治委员会的建议；但是，我愿。

    他不会提高政府效率改变其工作方式，裁减十万官员给美国城市的街道增加十万新警官；但是，我会。

    他从未平衡过政府预算，但是我已经平衡了十一次。

    他不想打破特殊利益集团对选举的束缚，不想排除各种游说团体对政府的干扰；但是，我想。

    他不愿让父母们有起码的机会在他们的孩子出生或他们的双亲患病时享受带薪假期；但是，我让。

    我们正在以惊人的速度失去我们的农庄，但他却不肯承诺让家庭保住他们的农庄；但是，我承诺。

    关于毒品他说了很多，他却不肯帮助第一线的人们发动缉毒灭罪的战役；但是，我肯。

    他不能带头保护环境并利用环保科技为二十一世纪创造新的工作机会；但是，我能。

    你们知道吗？他没有阿尔·戈尔；但是，我有。我怕，我怕你们没注意到——“戈尔”的最后一个字母是“E”。

    并且，乔治·布什，乔治·布什不愿保证妇女选择的权利；但是，我保证。

    听我说，我并不赞成“流产”；我只是坚决赞成“选择”。我相信那艰难而痛苦的选择应该留给美国的妇女去做。

    我希望个人的隐私权能够得到保护而且我们无须在政治论坛上再来讨论这个问题。然而我的年龄足以让我记得罗伊·佛·威德以前的情形，我不想回到那把人工流产的妇女和她们的医生看作罪犯的时代。

就业机会、学校教育、医疗保健，这些不是挂在我嘴上的承诺，而是我毕生的工作。

    “何者优先”必须清楚——我们将再次把人民放在第一位。然而这种“优先”若无清晰的行动计划就只是空洞的言辞。要将美丽的言辞变成现实，我们就必须彻底改变政府的处事方式。否则，我们将继续把数十亿美元扔进下水道。

    共和党人反对大政府的选战已经持续了一个时代。但是你们注意到没有，他们竟然将这个政府运行了整整一个时代而未作任何改变！他们不想稳定政府，他们还是要发动选战来反对它，这就是全部事实。

    但是，我的民主党伙伴们，是时候了，让我们明白我们也必须做出某些改变。政府并没有一个解决所有问题的万全之策。如果我们要让政府帮助人民，我们就必须让它再次运转起来。

    因为我们承诺在这次大会在这个讲坛上做出这些改变。用罗斯·佩罗自己今天的话来说，我们是新生的民主党，新生的民主党人。

    我十分清楚，数十万人正聚集在罗斯·佩罗的旗帜周围，组成了一支要求变革的爱国者的大军。今晚，我要对他们说，加入我们吧，让我们一起使美国获得新生。

    眼下，我还没有全部的答案，然而我确信老一套行不通。积极投资的经济理论已经破产。庞大的官僚体系——无论是私营的还是公立的——都失败了。

    这就是为什么我们要给政府找一条新的途径。一个更多授权而非集权的政府；一个给在校的——在公立学校的——年轻人更多的选择，给接受长期保健的老年人和残疾人更多的选择的政府；一个更像引导者而非定义者的政府；一个增加机会而非扩充官僚机构的政府；一个明了就业机会只能来自活泼的生机勃勃的自由企业体系的政府。

    我把这条新的途径叫做“新的契约”——一个人民和政府之间的庄严的协议，它并不简单地立足于我们能从国家索取什么，更立足于我们必须向国家奉献什么。

    我们提供基于传统价值之上的新的选择。我们提供机会，我们要求责任。我们将重建美国社会。我们提供的选择，既不是保守主义的，也不是自由主义的；从更丰富的层面看，甚至既不是共和主义的也不是民主主义的。它是截然不同的，它是全新的。它将有效。它所以有效，因为它深深地植根于美国人民所信守的价值和美国人民对未来的憧憬之中。

    乔治·布什说过的话中我不能同意的，可能也是最让我厌烦的，是他对美国人民寻求和探索更美好的未来这一传统的嘲笑和贬低。他嘲笑这憧憬是“泡影”。

    然而，我们只要想想圣经的教谕：“没有憧憬，人民便趋于灭亡。”

    我希望，我希望，今晚，在这个大会堂，在我们这个可爱的国家，没有谁在迈向明天时心里没有憧憬。我希望没有谁在养育子女时心里没有憧憬。我希望没有谁在开始自己的事业或在地里种植庄稼时心里没有憧憬。因为，“没有憧憬，人民便趋于灭亡。”

    这个国家如此多的孩子在如此多的方面陷入如此多的麻烦，原因之一，便是他们看到的是如此少的机会，如此少的责任心，如此少的充满爱和关怀的社区。以致他们甚至无法想象我们召唤他们去过的那种新的生活。

因此，我要重申：没有憧憬，美国将趋于灭亡。

    那么，我们和未来的新的契约中包含怎样的憧憬呢？

    一个有着数百万新的就业机会的有着十多个新兴产业的，自信地迈向二十一世纪美国。

    一个这样的美国，她向企业家和生意人宣告：我们将提供比以前更多的激励和机会让你们提高工人的技能，在全球经济中为美国创造更多的就业机会更多的财富；但是你们必须做好你们的本分，你们必须尽自己的责任。美国的公司必须再次像美国公司那样行动——输出我们的产品而不是就业机会。

这就是新契约的应有之意。

     一个这样的美国，在那里，高校的大门将再次为速记员和炼钢工人的子女们敞开。我们将宣布：每个人都可贷款进入高校，但是你们必须尽你们的本分：你们必须偿还，用你们未来的薪金——或者更好一些——回到你们的家乡服务于你们的社区。

    只要想想，想想这样一幅图景：千千万万精神充沛的青年男女服务于他们的国家——维护治安，教育儿童，看护病人照顾老人残疾人，或帮助年青人使他们远离毒品和帮派。它必然给我们所有人一种感觉，一种充满无限可能和希望的感觉。

    这就是新契约的应有之意。

    一个这样的美国，在那里，医疗保健是基本权利而非特权；在那里，我们要告诉我们的人民：“你们的政府终于有勇气挑战医疗保健行业的奸商，提供每个家庭能够支付得起的医疗服务。” 但是你们必须尽你们的本分。做好预防工作——搞好妊娠卫生，搞好儿童免疫；珍惜生命，节约金钱，避免家庭悲剧的发生。

    这就是新契约的应有之意。

    这样一个美国，中产阶级的收入而非他们的税负将持续增长。这样一个美国，是的，在那里少数最富的人那些年收入超过二十万美元的人将被要求承担公平的税负。这样一个美国，在那里富人不只是湿湿鞋，中产阶级也不会淹死——责任必须从最上层开始。

    这就是新契约的应有之意。

    一个这样的美国，在那里我们将如根据我们的了解为社会福利规定限度。我们要对那些依靠福利的人说：你们将享有，你们也应该享有——机会，完备的训练和教育，完善的儿童抚育和医疗保障以充分发掘你们的潜能。但是那以后，只要可能你就必须工作，因为社会福利只是辅助的手段，而不是生活方式。

这就是新契约的应有之意。

    一个这样的美国，它拥有世界上最强大的防卫力量，必要时它能够并且愿意使用武力。

    一个这样的美国，它站在维持和保护我们公共环境增加全球植被的最前线。

    一个这样的美国，它不会纵容暴君——从巴格达到北京。

    一个这样的美国，它支持自由和民主的事业——从东欧到南非，在我们自己所在的半球在海地在古巴。

    冷战的结束，允许我们在保持世界最强大的防卫力量的同时削减国防开支，但是我们必须把削减下的每一个美元都用于在国内创造就业机会。我深知世界需要一个强大的美国，但是我们都认识到力量源自国内。

    然而，这个新的契约不仅涉及你们和你们家庭的机会和责任，它更涉及我们共同的社会。

    今晚，你们每一个人都深知我们有太多的分歧。是时候了，让美国“痊愈”。

    因此，我必须告诉每一个美国人，超越那些使我们盲目的陈腐偏见。我们彼此需要——我们所有人——我们彼此需要。我们没有一个多余的人。但是太久了，政客们总是说我们中的多数都做得不错，真正对美国有害的只是剩下的那些人——他们。

    他们，少数族裔；他们，自由主义者；他们，穷人；他们，无家可归者；他们，残疾人；他们，同性恋者。

我们已经快要被“他们”置于死地。他们，他们，他们！

    但是，这里是美国，这里没有“他们”，只有“我们”！

    “上帝庇佑之下，一个不可分割的国家，自由正义属于所有的人。”

    这就是我们的《效忠誓言》，这就是新契约的应有之意。

    为何我知道我们能聚合起来让变革发生？因为我已看到它发生在我自己的州。在阿肯色，我们同心协力并取得了进展。不，没有什么阿肯色奇迹，只有许多奇迹般的阿肯色人。因为他们，我们的学校更好，我们的工资更高，我们的工厂更忙，我们的水源更清，而且我们的预算平衡。我们正在稳步向前。

    我希望能对现任总统治下的美国说同样的话。他领导了世界上最富有的国家却让她走了下坡路。我们接管的是美国最穷的州，但是我们让她向上走。

    所以我要对那些在这选战正酣的时节试图批评阿肯色的人们说：住口！尤其对那些来自华盛顿的家伙，我要说，住口！

    的确，你们将看到我们正在努力奋斗以解决一些尚未解决的问题，你们也将看到那么多杰出的人正在从事令人惊讶的工作，从中你们也许可以学到一些东西。

    说到底，我的美国同胞们，这个新的契约只是要求我们再次成为真正的美国人，新时代的传统的美国人——机会、责任、社会。

    只要我们团结起来，就将推动美国向前。回顾这个国家的全部历史，我们一次又一次地看到，只要我们万众一心，我们前进的步伐就无可阻挡。

    我们能够抓住这个时刻，让作为美国人再次成为令人激动精神焕发无上光荣的事情。我们能够重建我们的信念，我们能够重建举国一致的认识。

    正如圣经所说：“我们所能成就的，非我们的眼睛所曾见过，非我们的耳朵所曾听闻，非我们的头脑所能想象。”

    然而，我不能单打独斗，没有哪个总统能。我们必须同心协力。它并不轻松，也不会很快完成。我们不是一夜之间陷入困境的，我们也不可能一夜之间摆脱困境。凭着承诺、创造、多样性和无穷的动力，我们能够完成。

    我们能够完成。

    我们能够完成。

    我们能够完成。

    我要求这个会场的每一个人，这个国家的每一个人，伸出手来，和我们一起开始新的伟大的冒险，勇敢地描绘我们辉煌的未来。

    作为十几岁的少年，我曾聆听约翰·肯尼迪呼唤公民权利义务的演讲。那以后，作为乔治城大学的学生，我又聆听了卡罗尔·奎格利教授对此所做的阐释。他告诉我们，美国是历史上最伟大的国家，因为我们的人民坚信两条：一、明天会比今天更好；二、我们每一个人都在道德上都有责任让它成为现实。

    那样，那样一种未来，在我们的女儿切尔西降生之时走进了我的生命。当我站在产房之中，我被一个想法所压倒：上帝给了我一个我父亲不能领会的祝福——把自己的孩子抱在怀里。

    此刻，在美国的某个地方一个孩子正在降生。让它成为我们的事业：给那孩子一个幸福的家园，一个健康的家庭，一个充满希望的未来。让它成为我们的事业：给那孩子一个机会，实现上帝赋予她的全部潜能。

    让它成为我们的事业：看护那孩子，让他健壮、安全，让他在家庭和朋友的支持下迎接生活的挑战而从不单枪匹马，让他树立一个信念——在美国，没有谁被遗弃，没有谁落在后面。

    让它成为，让它成为我们的事业：只要那孩子能够，她将做出回报，回报她的孩子、她的社区、她的国家。让它成为我们的事业：给那孩子一个日益团结而不是趋于分裂的国家，一个充满无限希望无穷梦想的国家，一个再次振奋人民激励世界的国家。让它成为我们的事业我们的承诺我们的新的契约。

    我的美国同胞们，今晚我在这里结束我的演讲，一切将从这里开始。我始终相信一个地方——它就是希望。

    上帝保佑你们，上帝保佑美国。



William Jefferson Clinton:

1992 Democratic National Convention Acceptance Address

delivered 16 July 1992, New York, NY



Governor Richards, Chairman Brown, Mayor Dinkins, our great host, my fellow delegates and my fellow Americans, I am so proud of Al Gore.



He said he came here tonight because he always wanted to do the warm-up for Elvis. Well, I ran for President this year for one reason and one reason only: I wanted to come back to this convention and finish that speech I started four years ago.



Last night Mario Cuomo taught us how a real nominating speech should be given. He also made it clear why we have to steer our ship of state on a new course. Tonight I want to talk with you about my hope for the future, my faith in the American people, and my vision of the kind of country we can build together.



I salute the good men who were my companions on the campaign trial: Tom Harkin , Bob Kerrey, Doug Wilder, Jerry Brown, and Paul Tsongas.



One sentence in the Platform we built says it all. The most important family policy, urban policy, labor policy, minority policy, and foreign policy America can have is an expanding entrepreneurial economy of high-wage, high-skilled jobs.



And so, in the name of all those who do the work and pay the taxes, raise the kids, and play by the rules, in the name of the hardworking Americans who make up our forgotten middle class, I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States.



I am a product of that middle class, and when I am President, you will be forgotten no more.



We meet at a special moment in history, you and I. The Cold War is over. Soviet communism has collapsed and our values -- freedom, democracy, individual rights, free enterprise- they have triumphed all around the world. And yet, just as we have won the Cold War abroad, we are losing the battles for economic opportunity and social justice here at home.



Now that we have changed the world, it’s time to change America.



I have news for the forces of greed and the defenders of the status quo: Your time has come and gone. Its time for a change in America.



Tonight 10 million of our fellow Americans are out of work, tens of millions more work harder for lower pay. The incumbent President says unemployment always goes up a little before a recovery begins, but unemployment only has to go up by one more person before a real recovery can begin. And Mr. President, you are that man.



This election is about putting power back in your hands and putting government back on your side. It’s about putting people first.



You know, I’ve said that all across the country, and whenever I do, someone always comes back to me, as a young man did just this week at a town meeting at the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East side of Manhattan.



He said, “That sounds good, Bill, but you’re a politician. Why should I trust you?”



Tonight, as plainly as I can, I want to tell you who I am, what I believe, and where I want to lead America.



I never met my father. He was killed in a car wreck on a rainy road three months before I was born, driving from Chicago to Arkansas to see my mother.



After that, my mother had to support us, so we lived with my grandparents while she went back to Louisiana to study nursing. I can still see her clearly tonight through the eyes of a three-year-old, kneeling at the railroad station and weeping as she put me back on the train to Arkansas with my grandmother.



She endured that pain because she knew her sacrifice was the only way she could support me and give me a better life. My mother taught me. She taught me about family and hard work and sacrifice. She held steady through tragedy after tragedy, and she held our family- my brother and I- together through tough times.



As a child, I watched her go off work each day at a time when it wasn’t always easy to be a working mother.



As an adult, I’ve watched her fight off breast cancer, and again she has taught me a lesson in courage. And always, always, she taught me to fight.



That’s why I’ll fight to create high-paying jobs so that parents can afford to raise their children today.



That’s why I’m so committed to make sure every American gets the health care that saved my mother’s life and that women’s health care gets the same attention as men’s.



That’s why I’ll fight to make sure women in this country receive respect and dignity, whether they work in the home, out of the home, or both.



You want to know where I get my fighting spirit? It all started with my mother. Thank you, Mother. I love you.



When I think about opportunity for all Americans, I think about my grandfather. He ran a country store in our little town of Hope. There was no food stamps back then, so when his customers, whether they were White or Black who worked hard and did the best they could, came in with no money, well, he gave them food anyway. He just made a note of it. So did I.



Before I was big enough to see over the counter, I learned from him to look up to people other folks looked down on.



My grandfather just had a high school education- a grade school education- but in that country store he taught me more about equality in the eyes of the Lord than all my professors at Georgetown, more about the intrinsic worth of every individual that all the philosophers at Oxford, more about the need for equal justice under the law than all the jurists at Yale Law School.



If you want to know where I come by the passionate commitment I have to bringing people together without regard to race, it all started with my grandfather.



I learned a lot from another person too: a person who for more than 20 years has worked hard to help our children, paying the price of time to make sure our schools don’t fail them. Someone who traveled our state for a year, studying, learning, listening, going to PTA meetings, school board meetings, town hall meetings, putting together a package of school reforms recognized around the Nation, and doing it all while building a distinguished legal career and being a wonderful, loving mother.



That person is my wife.



Hillary taught me. She taught me that all children can learn and that each of us has a duty to help them do it.



So if you want to know why I care so much about our children, and our future, it all started with Hillary. I love you.



Frankly, I am fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values. Our families have values. But our government doesn’t.



I want an America where family values live in our actions, not just in our speeches. An America that includes every family. Every traditional family and every extended family. Every two parent family. Every single-parent family. And every foster family. Every family.



I do want to say something to the fathers in this country who have chosen to abandon their children by neglecting their child support: Take responsibility for your children or we will force you to do so. Because governments don’t raise children; parents do. And you should.



And I want to say something to every child in America tonight who is out there trying to grow up without a father or a mother: I know how you feel. You are special too.



You matter to America. And don’t you ever let anybody tell you can’t become whatever you want to be. And if other politicians make you feel like you are not part of their family, come on and be part of ours.



The thing that makes me angriest about what has gone wrong in the last 12 years is that our government has lost touch with our values, while our politicians continue to shout about them. I’m tired of it!



I was raised to believe the American Dream was built on rewarding hard work. But we have seen the folks of Washington turn the American ethic on its head.



For too long those who play by the rules and keep the faith have gotten the shaft, and those who cut corners and cut deals have been rewarded.



People are working harder than ever, spending less time with their children, working nights and weekends at their jobs instead of going to PTA and Little League or Scouts. And their incomes are still going down.  Their taxes are still going up. And the costs of health care, housing and education are going through the roof.



Meanwhile, more and more of our best people are falling into poverty even though they work 40 hours a week.



Our people are pleading for change, but government is in the way. It has been hijacked by privileged private interests. It has forgotten who really pays the bills around here. It has taken more of your money and given you less in return. We have got to go beyond the brain-dead politics in Washington and give our people the kind of government they deserve, a government that works for them.



A President, a president, ought to be a powerful force for progress. But right now I know how President Lincoln felt when General McClellan wouldn’t attack in the Civil War. He asked him, “If you’re not going to use your army, may I borrow it?”



And so I say: George Bush, if you won’t use our power to help America, step aside. I will.



Our country is falling behind. The President is caught in the grip of a failed economic theory. We have gone from first to 13th in the world in wages since Ronald Reagan and Bush have been in office.



Four years ago, candidate Bush said, “America is a special place, not just another pleasant country somewhere on the UN Roll Call between Albania and Zimbabwe.” Now under President Bush, America has an unpleasant economy struck somewhere between Germany and Sri Lanka.



And for most Americans, Mr. President, life’s a lot less kind and a lot less gentle than it was before your administration took office.



Listen, do it some more.



Our country has fallen so far so fast that just a few months ago the Japanese prime minister actually said he felt sympathy for the United States. Sympathy. When I am your President , the rest, the rest, of the world will not look down on us with pity but up to us with respect again.



What is George Bush doing about our economic problems?



Now, four years ago he promised 15 million new jobs by this time, and he’s over 14 million short. Al Gore and I can do better.



He has raised taxes on the people driving pickup trucks and lowered taxes on the people riding in limousines. We can do better.



He promised to balance the budget, but he hasn’t even tried. In fact, the budgets he has submitted to Congress nearly doubled the debt. Even worse, he wasted billions and reduced our investments in education and jobs. We can do better.



So if you are sick and tired of a government that doesn’t work to create jobs, if you’re sick and tired of a tax system that’s stacked against you, if you’re sick and tired of exploding debt and reduced investments in our future, or if, like the great civil rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer, you’re just plain old sick and tired of being sick and tired, then join us, work with us, win with us, and we can make our country the country it was meant to be.



Now, George Bush talks a good game, but he has no game plan to rebuild America, from the cities to the suburbs to the countryside, so that we can compete and win again in the global economy. I do.



He won’t take on the big insurance companies and the bureaucracies to control health costs and give us affordable health care for all Americans, but I will.



He won’t even implement the recommendations of his own commission on AIDS, but I will.



He won’t streamline the federal government and change the way it works, cut 100,000 bureaucrats and put 100,000 new police officers on the streets of American cities, but I will. (Applause)



He’s never balanced a government budget, but I have 11 times.



He won’t break the stranglehold the special interests have on our elections and the lobbyists have on our government, but I will.



He won’t give mothers and fathers the simple chance to take some time off from work when a baby is born or a parent it sick, but I will.



We’re losing our farms at a rapid rate, and he has no commitment to keep family farms in the family, but I do.



He’s talked a lot about drugs, but he hasn’t helped people on the front line to wage that war on drugs and crime. But I will.



He won’t take the lead in protecting the environment and creating new jobs in environmental technologies for the 21st century, but I will. And you know what else? He doesn’t have Al Gore, and I do.



Just in case, just in case, you didn’t notice, that’s Gore with an E on the end.



And George Bush- George Bush won’t guarantee a women’s right to choose; I will.



Hear me now. I am not pro-abortion; I am pro-choice, strongly. I believe this difficult and painful decision should be left to the women of America.



I hope the right to privacy can be protected and we will never again have to discuss this issue on political platforms. But I am old enough to remember what it was like before Roe v. Wade, and I do not want to return to the time when we made criminals of women and their doctors.



Jobs, education, health care- these are not just commitments from my lips; they are the work of my life.



Our priorities must be clear; we will put our people first again. But priorities without a clear plan of action are just empty words. To turn our rhetoric into reality we’ve got to change the way government does business, fundamentally. Until we do, we’ll continue to pour billions of dollars down the drain.



The Republicans have campaigned against big government for a generation, but have you noticed? They’ve run this big government for a generation and they haven’t changed a thing. They don’t want to fix government; they still want to campaign against it, and that’s all.



But, my fellow Democrats, its time for us to realize we’ve got some changing to do too. There is not a program in government for every problem, and if we want to use government to help people, we have got to make it work again.



Because we are committed in this Convention and in this Platform to making these changes, we are, as Democrats, in the words that Ross Perot himself spoke today, “a revitalized Democratic Party.”



I am well aware that all those millions of people who rallied to Ross Perot’s cause wanted to be in an army of patriots for change. Tonight I say to them, join us, and together we will revitalize America.



Now, I don’t have all the answers, but I do know the old ways don’t work. Trickledown economics has sure failed. And big bureaucracies, both private and public, they’ve failed too.



That’s why we need a new approach to government, a government that offers more empowerment and less entitlement. More choices for young people in the schools they attend- in the public schools they attend. And more choices for the elderly and for people with disabilities and the long-term care they receive. A government that is leaner, not meaner; a government that expands opportunity, not bureaucracy; a government that understands that jobs must come from growth in a vibrant and vital system of free enterprise.



I call this approach a New Covenant, a solemn agreement between the people and their government based not simply on what each of us can take but what all of us must give to our Nation.



We offer our people a new choice based on old values. We offer opportunity. We demand responsibility. We will build an American community again. The choice we offer is not conservative or liberal. In many ways, it is not even Republican or Democratic. It is different. It is new. And it will work. It will work because it is rooted in the vision and the values of the American people.



Of all the things that George Bush has ever said that I disagree with, perhaps the thing that bothers me most is how he derides and degrades the American tradition of seeing and seeking a better future. He mocks it as the “vision thing.”



But just remember what the Scripture says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”



I hope, I hope, nobody in this great hall tonight, or in our beloved country has to go through tomorrow without a vision. I hope no one ever tries to raise a child without a vision. I hope nobody ever starts a business or plants a crop in the ground without a vision. For where there is no vision, the people perish.



One of the reasons we have so many children in so much trouble in so many places in this nation is because they have seen so little opportunity, so little responsibility, so little loving, caring community, that they literally cannot imagine the life we are calling them to lead.



And so I say again: Where there is no vision, America will perish. What is the vision of our New Covenant?



An America with millions of new jobs and dozens of new industries, moving confidently toward the 21st century.



An America that says to entrepreneurs and businesspeople: We will give you more incentives and more opportunity than ever before to develop the skills of your workers and to create American jobs and American wealth in the new global economy. But you must do your part, you must be responsible. American companies must act like American companies again, exporting products, not jobs.



That’s what this New Covenant is all about.



An America in which the doors of colleges are thrown open once again to the sons and daughters of stenographers and steelworkers. We will say: Everybody can borrow money to go to college. But you must do your part. You must pay it back, from your paychecks or, better yet, by going back home and serving your communities.



Just think of it. Think of it. Millions of energetic young men and women serving their country by policing the streets or teaching the children or caring for the sick. Or working with the elderly and people with disabilities. Or helping young people to stay off drugs and out of gangs, giving us all a sense of new hope and limitless possibilities.



That’s what this New Covenant is all about.



An America in which health care is a right, not a privilege, in which we say to all of our people: “Your government has the courage finally to take on the health care profiteers and make health care affordable for every family.” But, you must do your part. Preventive care, prenatal care, childhood immunization- saving lives, saving money, saving families from heartbreak.



That’s what the New Covenant is all about.



An America in which middle-class incomes, not middle-class taxes, are going up.



An America, yes, in which the wealthiest few, those making over $200,000 a year, are asked to pay their fair share.



An America in which the rich are not soaked, but the middle class is not drowned, either.



Responsibility starts at the top.



That’s what the New Covenant is all about.



An America where we end welfare as we know it. We will say to those on welfare: You will have, and you deserve, the opportunity, through training and education, through child care and medical coverage, to liberate yourself. But then, when you can, you must work, because welfare should be a second chance, not a way of life.



That’s what the New Covenant is all about.



An America with the world’s strongest defense, ready and willing to use force when necessary.



An America at the forefront of the global effort to preserve and protect our common environment- and promoting global growth.



An America that will not coddle tyrants, from Baghdad to Beijing.



An America that champions the cause of freedom and democracy from Eastern Europe to Southern Africa- and in our own hemispheres, in Haiti and Cuba.



The end of the Cold War permits us to reduce defense spending while still maintaining the strongest defense in the world, but we must plow back every dollar of defense cuts into building American jobs right here at home. I know well that the world needs a strong America, but we have learned that strength begins at home.



But the New Covenant is about more than opportunities and responsibilities for you and your families. It’s also about our common community.



Tonight every one of you knows deep in your heart that we are too divided. It is time to heal America.



And so we must say to every American: Look beyond the stereotypes that blind us. We need each other - all of us - we need each other. We don’t have a person to waste, and yet for too long politicians have told the most of us that are doing all right that what’s really wrong with America is the rest of us- them.



Them, the minorities. Them, the liberals. Them, the poor. Them, the homeless. Them, the people with disabilities. Them, the gays.



We’ve gotten to where we’ve nearly them'ed ourselves to death. Them, and them, and them.



But, this is America. There is no them. There is only us.



One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.



That, that, is our Pledge of Allegiance, and that’s what the New Covenant is all about.



How do I know we can come together and make change happen? Because I have seen it in my own state. In Arkansas, we are working together, and we are making progress. No, there’s no Arkansas Miracle, but there are a lot of miraculous people. And because of them, our schools are better, our wages are higher, our factories are busier, our water is cleaner and our budget is balanced. We’re moving ahead.



I wish I could say the same thing about America under the incumbent President. He took the richest country in the world and brought it down.



We took one of the poorest states in America and lifted it up.



And so I say to all of those, in this campaign season who would criticize Arkansas, come on down. Especially if you’re from Washington, come on down.



Sure, you’ll see us struggling against some of the problems that we haven’t solved yet, but you’ll also see a lot of great people doing amazing things, and you might even learn a thing or two.



In the end, my fellow Americans, this New Covenant simply asks us all to be Americans again- old-fashioned Americans for a new time. Opportunity, responsibility, community.



When we pull together, America will pull ahead. Throughout the whole history of this country, we have seen, time and time and time again, when we are united we are unstoppable.



We can seize this moment, make it exciting and energizing and heroic to be American again. We can renew our faith in each other and in ourselves. We can restore our sense of unity and community.



As the Scripture says, “our eyes have not yet seen, nor our ears heard, nor minds imagined” what we can build.



But I can’t do this alone. No President can. We must do it together. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick. We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and we won’t get out of it overnight. But we can do it- with commitment, creativity, diversity and drive.



We can do it. We can do it.



We can do it. We can do it. We can do it.



We can do it. We can do it. We can do it.



I want every person in this hall and every person in this land to reach out and join us in a great new adventure, to chart a bold new future.



As a teenager, I heard John Kennedy’s summons to citizenship. And then, as a student at Georgetown, I head that call clarified by a professor name Carol Quigley, who said to us that America was the greatest Nation in history because our people had always believed in two things- that tomorrow can be better than today and that every one of us has a personal moral responsibility to make it so.



That, that, kind of future entered my life the night our daughter, Chelsea, was born. As I stood in the delivery room, I was overcome with the thought that God had given me a blessing my own father never knew- the chance to hold my child in my arms.



Somewhere at this very moment a child is being born in America. Let it be our cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family and a hopeful future. Let it be our cause to see that that child has a chance to live to the fullest of her God-given capacities.



Let it be our cause to see that child grow up strong and secure, braced by her challenges but never struggling alone, with family and friends and a faith that in America, no one is left out; no one is left behind.



Let it be, let it be, our cause that when this child is able, she gives something back to her children, her community and her country. Let it be our cause that we give this child a country that is coming together, not coming apart, a country of boundless hopes and endless dreams, a country once again lifts its people and inspires the world. Let that be our cause our commitment and our New Covenant.



My fellow Americans, I end tonight where it all began for me- I still believe in a place called Hope. God bless you, and God Bless America.

教师之友网

乔治·布什：第二次总统就职演说


副总统切尼先生、大法官先生、卡特总统、布什总统、克林顿总统、国会议员、尊敬的牧师、尊贵的客人、美国同胞们：

    今天，按照宪法的规定和庆典的安排，我们赞美我国宪法深远的智慧，重温那将我们团结在一起的深深的承诺，我感激于这一时刻的荣耀，牢记我们生活于其中的相生相因继往开来的时代，我将坚定地履行我所宣誓你们所见证过的誓言。

    在我的第二个总统任期，我们的职责并不由我使用的言辞所定义，而是由我们共同见证的历史所规定。半个世纪以来，美国常备不懈地守护着我们漫长的边境线以捍卫我们的自由。在共产主义的全面溃败后，我们迎来了一些年的相对的和平、宁静与安定。然后，战火再一次燃起。

    我们已经发现了自己的弱点及其根源：当世界上大片地区煎熬于怨恨与暴政之中，当许多地区热衷于那种培养仇恨提供杀戮理由的意识形态，暴力便会聚集，在破坏性势力中繁殖，并突破我们最严密的防线，酿成致命的威胁。历史上只有一种力量能够打破怨毒和仇恨的统治，揭露独裁者的傲慢，鼓励正直仁慈的人们的希望，这就是人类自由的力量。

    接连发生的事变和我们的常识引导我们得出这样一个结论：自由在我们这片国土上的生存，日甚一日地依赖于它在世界其他地方的成功。当今世界对于和平最好的希望就是自由在全世界的不断发展。

    美国至关重要的利益和我们至为牢固的信念现在已合而为一。从美国建国的那一天起，我们就宣言：在这个星球上的每一个男人和女人都有同样的权利、尊严和独特的价值，因为他们的身上体现了那创造了天地的上帝的特征。一代又一代地，我们重申自治的诫律，因为没有谁是天生的主子，也没有谁是命定的奴才。正是这些信念的推进和发展形成了那由我们先辈完成的缔造我们这个国家的光辉使命。现在，推进和发展这些信念又成了我们国家安全的迫切需要和我们时代的呼唤。所以，关注与支持民主运动民主制度在每个国家每种文化中的生长发展，并最终在全世界结束暴政，这就是美国的政策。

    这将主要不是我们武装力量的任务，尽管在必要时我们将用它保卫我们自己和我们的朋友。自由，从本质上看，必须由多数公民来选择并捍卫，由法治来维系并保障少数族裔。当民族精神决定性地发言时，随之产生的制度所反映的风俗习惯、文化传统也许会和我们的迥然不同。美国不会把我们的政府模式强加给别人，相反，我们的目标是帮助别人找到他们自己的声音、自己的自由和自己的道路。结束暴政这一伟大目标凝聚了我们祖祖辈辈的努力。达成这一目标的艰难，决不能成为逃避它的借口。美国的影响力的确不是无限的，但值得庆幸的是，对那些被压迫者来说，美国的影响力是值得认真考虑的，我们会自信地将其用于自由的事业。

    我最主要的职责之一是保障我的国家和人民免遭进一步的攻击与恐吓。那些愚蠢地选择了要考验美国决心的人们终于发现：美国坚如磐石。

    我们将坚持不懈地阐明那摆在每个国家每个统治者面前的选择，它同时也是一种道德选择：选择压迫，总是错误；选择自由，永远正确。美国不会伪称那些被囚禁的异见者喜欢他们的锁链，也不会认为妇女们欢迎羞辱和奴役，更不会认为人们热望被强者欺凌摆布。

    我们将清楚地表明，那些想要同我们保持良好关系的国家必须体面地对待它的人民，并以此来鼓励其他国家政府的改革。美国关于人类尊严的信念将指导我国的外交政策：正义必须多于独裁者的勉强让步，并由持不同政见的自由和被统治者对政治的参与而得到保障。归根到底，没有自由便没有正义，没有人的自由便没有基本人权。

    我知道，有些人一直在质疑那种对自由的全球性的渴望与呼唤——尽管在这个历史时刻，有我们所目睹的四十多年来自由事业的迅猛发展作注脚，怀疑已不合时宜。而任何美国人都不会惊讶于我们理想的威力。自由的呼唤终将走进每一颗心感动每一个灵魂。我们不能接受专制的持久存在，因为我们不能接受奴隶制度长存的可能。自由将拥抱那些热爱它的人们。

    今天，美国再次向全世界人民宣告：所有那些生活在暴政和绝望中的人们应该知道，美国不会无视你们的苦难，美国也不会饶恕你们的压迫者；当你们为自己的自由挺身而出时，我们将和你们站在一起。

    那些面对镇压、监狱和放逐的民主改革家们应该知道，美国视你们为你们终获自由的国家的未来的领导人。

那些非法政权的统治者们应该知道，我们始终抱持与亚伯拉罕·林肯相同的信念：“那些拒绝给人民以自由的人自己也不得自由，在正义的上帝的统治下那不义的状况必不能长久。”

    那些长期习惯于控制的政府的领导人必须知道，服务于你的人民便必须学会信任他们。踏上进步和正义的大道吧，美国将和你们并肩前进！

    所有美国的盟友都应该知道，我们珍视你们的友谊，我们信赖你们的忠告，我们依靠你们的帮助。在民主国家中制造分裂是自由的敌人的首要目标之一，而民主国家在促进民主方面协调一致的努力便是我们敌人失败的前奏。

    今天，我再一次向所有的美国公民致意：正如我曾经要求并得到你们高度赞同的那样，在执行捍卫美国的艰巨任务时要保持耐心。我们的国家已经被赋予了一项艰难的使命，放弃它将是我们的耻辱。由于我们在这个国家传统精神感召下的努力，数以千万计的人们已经获得自由；而希望点燃希望，更多的人们将得到自由。我们用自己的努力点燃了人们心中自由的火炬，它温暖着那些已感受到自由的力量的人们，它鼓舞着那些为自由进步而战的人们。总有一天，这不可遏抑的自由之火终将照亮这个世界上最黑暗的角落。

    有一些美国人承担了这一事业中最艰辛的任务：那默默无闻的情报和外交工作，那充满理想主义精神的帮助培育民主政府的任务，那危险而不可避免的同自由的敌人作战的任务。他们中的一些人甚至用足以荣耀一世的献身来彰显他们对国家的忠诚。我们将永远铭记他们的英名和他们的牺牲。

    所有的美国人——有些人可能是第一次——都见证了这理想主义的辉煌。年轻的美国公民们，我要求你们记住你们所目睹的事迹：从战士们坚毅的面容上你们见证了责任与忠诚；你们见证了生命的脆弱、邪恶的真实以及英雄主义的凯旋。选择服务于高于你个人需要、高于你个人一切的伟大事业吧，那么，在你的有生之年，你奉献给祖国的不仅仅是财富，你更丰富了她的性格。

    为了完成在美国国内实现真正的自由平等这一根本的尚未完成的任务，美国需要理想主义和英雄主义。在全世界朝着自由前进时，我们更是注定了要凭借它们向全世界展示自由的含义和我们对于自由的承诺。

    按照美国的自由理想，代替以往在生存边缘辛勤劳作苦苦挣扎的，是公民们在经济自主的基础上获得的个人的尊严与安全。正是对于自由的更为宽泛的定义，推动了《宅地法》《社会安全法》和《G.I.比尔权利法案》等一系列的立法。现在，我们将根据时代的要求改革庞大的公共机构，以扩展自由的前景。为了给每一个美国人的以坚定的承诺，给美国一个可靠的未来，我们将对学校的建设提出一流的标准；并建立一个产权明晰的社会；我们将进一步推进在住宅、企业、退休保障和卫生保健等方面的产权明晰化进程，使我们的人民更好地适应在自由社会中的生存竞争。通过促使每个公民成为自己命运的主宰，我们将在免于“匮乏与恐惧”方面给美国人民以更大的自由，从而使我们的社会更繁荣更公正也更平等。

    按照美国的自由理想，公众的利益依赖于个人的品格：正直、对他人的宽容以及在社会交往中对良心律令的服从。归根到底，自治依赖于每个公民的自律。而个人品格的大厦是由家庭所建造，由社会规范所支持，由诸如西奈摩西十诫、耶稣登山宝训、《可兰经》经文以及我国人民的其他不同信仰所维系的。一代又一代的美国人正是重申着我们生活中那由来已久的善和真而不断前进的——那正义的理想和那过去、今天、未来始终如一的行动。

    按照美国的自由理想，正义的实践必由服务、宽恕和对弱者的同情而益增荣耀。“自由属于全体”并不意味着彼此分离。我们的国家依赖于所有男人女人对邻里的关心以及对迷失者无微不至的爱。美国人民，将尽其所能地珍惜每一个生命；他们必须永远牢记，甚至那些似乎无用的事物也自有其价值。我们的国家必须放弃种族歧视的恶习，因为我们不能在传播自由信息的同时自己却背负固执偏见的包袱。

   从单一时代的角度看——包括我们这个要求奉献的时刻——摆在我们国家面前的问题的确不少；若从跨世纪的角度看，我们面临的问题却明确而单一：我们这一代人能否把自由的事业推向前进并且凭借我们的个性为其增添光彩？

    这些问题在考验我们的同时也团结了我们，因为美国人——无论何种党派何种背景，无论生于美国还是外来移民——自由的事业已使我们血肉相连。我们了解存在的分歧，在迈向伟大目标的进程中我们必须弥合这些分歧，我将抱持良好的信念努力去弥合它们。分歧并不能定义美国。当自由受到攻击，我们的反应像以手抚胸宣誓那样协同一致，那时我们感受到的是深深的手足情谊和举国一致的团结；当美国为正义而行动，给受难者以希望，给不义者以审判，给被囚禁者以自由，我们感到同样的团结与自豪。

    我们怀抱着自由终将胜利的信念前进——不是由于历史车轮的必然转动，而是由于人们推动事变的明智选择；不是因为我们自认是上帝的选民，上帝的鼓励和选择总是出自他自己的意愿。我们怀抱这个信念，因为自由是人类永恒的希望、身处黑暗时的期盼、发自灵魂的渴望。当我们国家的缔造者们宣布时代新的律令时，当战士们为奠基于自由的联邦而前仆后继英勇牺牲时，当人们强压怒火在“立即自由”的旗帜下奋勇前进时，他们实践的正是我们国家注定要实现的古老的梦想。回顾历史，追求自由正义的运动潮涨潮落彼伏此起；然而历史的方向也确定无疑：一切由自由所设定，由自由的缔造者所安排。

    当《独立宣言》首次公之于众，当“独立钟”在庆典中敲响，一位身历者描述说：“那钟声中仿佛有某种昭示。”今天，这自由的钟声依然是一种昭示。在新世纪开始之时，美国向全世界，向全世界所有居民重申自由。我们将重聚我们的力量，经受任何考验，毫不懈怠地推进自由，时刻准备着去迎接自由发展史上最伟大的成就！

愿上帝保佑你们。愿上帝眷顾美国。



George W. Bush: Second Inaugural Address

delivered 20 January 2005, Washington D.C.

Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, members of the United States Congress, reverend clergy, distinguished guests, fellow citizens:



On this day, prescribed by law and marked by ceremony, we celebrate the durable wisdom of our Constitution, and recall the deep commitments that unite our country. I am grateful for the honor of this hour, mindful of the consequential times in which we live, and determined to fulfill the oath that I have sworn and you have witnessed.



At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use, but by the history we have seen together. For a half century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical -- and then there came a day of fire.



We have seen our vulnerability, and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny, prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder, violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.



We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.



America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights and dignity and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time.



So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.



This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.



The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause.



My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people against further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test America's resolve, and have found it firm.



We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.

We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty.



Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty -- though this time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen, is an odd time for doubt. Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals. Eventually, the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it.



Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world: All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.



The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."



The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side.



And all the allies of the United States can know: we honor your friendship; we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help. Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies' defeat.

Today, I also speak anew to my fellow citizens: From all of you, I have asked patience in the hard task of securing America, which you have granted in good measure. Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill, and would be dishonorable to abandon. Yet because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By our efforts, we have lit a fire as well -- a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress. And one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world.



A few Americans have accepted the hardest duties in this cause -- in the quiet work of intelligence and diplomacy, the idealistic work of helping raise up free governments, the dangerous and necessary work of fighting our enemies. Some have shown their devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives, and we will always honor their names and their sacrifice.



All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time. I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real, and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself, and in your days you will add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character.



America has need of idealism and courage, because we have essential work at home -- the unfinished work of American freedom. In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty.



In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence, instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act, and the G.I. Bill of Rights. And now we will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the needs of our time. To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools, and build an ownership society. We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance -- preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear, and make our society more prosperous and just and equal.



In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character -- on integrity, and tolerance toward others, and the rule of conscience in our own lives. Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came before -- ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today, and forever.



In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by service, and mercy, and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. And our country must abandon all the habits of racism, because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.

From the perspective of a single day, including this day of dedication, the issues and questions before our country are many. From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring credit to that cause?



These questions that judge us also unite us, because Americans of every party and background, Americans by choice and by birth, are bound to one another in the cause of freedom. We have known divisions, which must be healed to move forward in great purposes, and I will strive in good faith to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define America. We felt the unity and fellowship of our nation when freedom came under attack, and our response came like a single hand over a single heart. And we can feel that same unity and pride whenever America acts for good, and the victims of disaster are given hope, and the unjust encounter justice, and the captives are set free.



We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom -- not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events; not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order of the ages, when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty, when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now," they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty, and the Author of Liberty.



When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public and the Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, a witness said, "It rang as if it meant something." In our time it means something still. America, in this young century proclaims liberty throughout all the world, and to all the inhabitants thereof. Renewed in our strength, tested, but not weary, we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom.



May God bless you, and may He watch over the United States of America.

教师之友网

马丁·路德·金的这篇演讲是英语演讲中的名篇，网上各种译本俯拾皆是。我的工作一是补齐被众多译本删去的开头，使之更完整；二是比较各种译本，按照我的理解择善而从；三是按照我对照译文背诵原文的习惯，尽量使译文的句式与原文保持一致，可能有“硬译”的嫌疑；四是将“justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”译为“直到公正降如甘霖，正义汇成洪流”，因为我想既然waters一词有雨水之意，这样翻译会更合理。文中“我梦想有一天，深谷弥合，高山夷平，坎坷化为坦途，曲径变成通衢，上帝的光华再现，普天下生灵共谒。 ”一段我以为是翻译中最贴近“信、雅、达”要求的神来之笔，谨向原译者致崇高的敬意！ 窃以为目前呈现在这里的译本优于选入人教版语文课本的译本 。        ——梦回濠梁
  

                     我有一个梦

                                     马丁·路德·金
      我很高兴，今天能和你们一起参加这将载入史册的我国历史上最伟大的争取自由的示威。

    100年前，一位伟大的美国人——今天我们就站在他象征性的身影下——签署了《解放宣言》。这项重要法令的颁布，对于千百万炙烤于残酷不义的烈焰中的黑奴，犹如带来希望之光的硕大灯塔，恰似结束禁锢长夜的欢畅黎明。

        然而，100年后，黑人依然不得自由。100年后，黑人依然悲惨地蹒跚于种族隔离的束缚和种族歧视的镣铐之下。100年后，黑人依然生活在物质繁荣翰海的贫困孤岛上。100年后，黑人依然在美国社会的一隅憔悴枯萎，发现他自己竟成了自己国土上的流浪者。因此，今天我们来到这里，要把这可耻的情况公诸于众。

        从某种意义上说，我们来到我们国家的首都是来兑现一张支票。当我们共和国的缔造者在拟写宪法和独立宣言的辉煌篇章时，他们就签署了一张每个美国人都能继承的支票。这支票是一项承诺——确保所有人，不论白人还是黑人，都享有不可让渡的生存、自由和追求幸福的权利。

        然而，对她的有色公民而言，今天美国显然拖欠着这张支票。美国没有承兑这笔神圣的债务，他给了黑人一张空头支票——一张盖着“资金不足”的印戳被退回的支票。

        但是，我们决不相信正义的银行会破产。我们决不相信这个国家巨大的机会宝库会资金不足。 因此，我们来兑现这张支票。这张支票将给我们以自由的财富和正义的保障。

        我们来到这块圣地还为了提醒美国：现在是万分紧急的时刻。现在不是从容不迫悠然行事或服用渐进主义镇静剂的时候。是时候了，让我们把民主的诺言变成现实；是时候了，让我们走出种族隔离的黑暗荒凉的山谷，踏上种族平等的阳关大道；是时候了，让我们的国家超越种族歧视的流沙，奠基于手足情谊的磐石之上；是时候了，让上帝所有的孩子都享有真正的公平。

        忽视这一时刻的紧迫性，对于国家将会是致命的。自由平等的凉爽秋日不到，黑人顺情合理的哀怨的酷暑就不会过去。1963年不是一个结束，而是一个开端。

        如果国家依然我行我素，那些希望黑人只需出出气就会心满意足的人将大为震惊。在黑人得到公民权之前，美国既不会安宁，也不会平静。反抗的旋风将继续震撼我们国家的基石，直至光辉灿烂的正义之日来临。

        但是，对于站在通向正义宫殿的艰辛门槛上的人们，有一些话我必须说：在争取我们合法地位的过程中，决不能错误行事导致犯罪；我们决不能为解除我们对自由的饥渴而啜饮于苦难和仇恨之杯。我们必须永远高贵得体纪律严明地进行斗争。我们决不容许我们富有创造性的抗议沦为暴力行动。我们必须不断升华到用灵魂力量对付肉体力量的崇高境界。

        席卷黑人社会的新的奇迹般的战斗精神，不应导致我们对所有白人的不信任——因为许多白人兄弟已经认识到：他们的命运同我们的命运紧密相连，他们的自由同我们的自由休戚相关——他们今天来到这里参加集会就是证明。我们不能单独行动。

        当我们行动时，我们必须保证始终勇往直前。我们不能后退。有人问热心民权运动的人：“你们什么时候会感到满意？”只要黑人依然是不堪形容的警察暴行恐怖的牺牲品，我们就决不会满意。只要我们在旅途劳顿后，却被公路旁汽车游客旅社和城市旅馆拒之门外，我们就决不会满意。只要黑人的基本活动范围只限于从狭小的黑人居住区到较大的黑人居住区，我们就决不会满意。我们就决不会满意，只要密西西比州的黑人不能参加选举，只要纽约州的黑人认为他们与选举毫不相干。不，不，我们不会满意，我们将不会满意，直到公正降如甘霖，正义汇成洪流。

        我并非没有注意到，来到这里，你们有些人历经考验和苦难；你们有些人刚从狭小的牢房里走出；你们有些人来自这样的地区——在那里你们因追求自由而饱受迫害风暴的打击和警察暴虐狂飙的摧残。你们饱经风霜，历尽苦难。继续努力吧，要相信：无辜受苦终得报偿。

        回到密西西比去，回到阿拉巴马去，回到南卡罗来纳去，回到佐治亚去；回到路易斯安那去；回到我们北方城市中的贫民窟和黑人居住区去。要知道，无论如何，这种情况能够而且将会改变。让我们不要在绝望的深渊里沉沦。朋友们，今天我对你们说，尽管眼下困难重重，但我依然有一个梦。这个梦深深植根于美国梦之中。

我梦想有一天，这个国家将会奋起，实现其立国信条的真谛：“我们认为这些真理不言而喻：人人生而平等。”

我梦想有一天，在佐治亚州的红色山岗上，昔日奴隶的儿子能够同昔日奴隶主的儿子同席而坐，亲如手足。

我梦想有一天，甚至连密西西比州——一个非正义和压迫的热浪逼人的荒凉的沙漠，将会改造成为自由和公正的青青绿洲。

我梦想有一天，我的四个小女儿将生活在这并一个国家，在那里不以皮肤的颜色，而以品格的优劣作，为评判标准。

我今天有一个梦。 我梦想有一天，在阿拉巴马州——连同那些恶毒的种族主义者，连同那扬言要对联邦法令提出异议和拒绝执行的该州州长——有一天，正是在阿拉巴马，黑人儿童和白人儿童能够手拉手如兄弟姐妹。

我今天有一个梦。 我梦想有一天，深谷弥合，高山夷平，坎坷化为坦途，曲径变成通衢，上帝的光华再现，普天下生灵共谒。

这是我们的希望。这是我将带回南方去的信念。有了这个信念，我们就能从绝望之山开采出希望之石。有了这个信念，我们就能把这个国家不和的争吵变为悦耳的手足情谊的交响。有了这个信念，我们就能一同工作，一同祈祷，一同斗争，一同入狱，一同维护自由。要知道，总有一天，我们将获得自由。

到那一天，上帝的所有孩子都能以新的含义高唱：

我的祖国，可爱的自由之邦，我为您歌唱。这是我先辈的长眠之地，这前驱者的骄傲和自豪，让自由之声，响彻每一座山岗。

美国要成为伟大的国家，这一点必须实现。因此：

让自由之声响彻新罕布什尔州的巍峨高峰；

让自由之声响彻纽约州的崇山峻岭；

让自由之声响彻宾夕法尼亚州的阿勒格尼高峰！；

让自由之声响彻科罗拉多州冰雪皑皑的洛基山；

让自由之声响彻加利福尼亚州的婀娜群峰！

   不，不仅如此；让自由之声响彻佐治亚州的石山；

   让自由之声响彻田纳西州的望山；

   让自由之声响彻密西西比州的一座座山峰，一个个土丘！；

   让自由之声响彻每一个山岗；

   当我们让自由之声轰鸣，当我们让自由之声响彻每一个大小村庄，每一个州府城镇，我们就能加速这一天的到来。那时，上帝的所有孩子，黑人和白人，犹太教徒和非犹太教徒，耶稣教徒和天主教徒，将能携手同唱那首古老的黑人灵歌：

   终于自由了！

   终于自由了！

   感谢全能的上帝，我们终于自由！”





Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream"

delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.



I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.



Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.



But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.



In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."



But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.



We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.



It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.



But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.



The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.



There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹



I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.



Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.



I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."



I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.



I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.



I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.



I have a dream today!



I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.



I have a dream today!



I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.



This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.



And this will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.



And so let freedom ring -- from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring -- from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring -- from the heightening Alleghenies of  Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring -- from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring -- from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that

Let freedom ring -- from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring -- from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring -- from every hill and molehill of Mississippi,

from every mountainside, let freedom ring!



And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last,

free at last.Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.

教师之友网

里根总统是公认的演讲高手，这篇演辞亦可作为最朴素最动人的悼词载入史册。演辞拿“挑战者”号的全体宇航员同伟大的探险家弗朗西斯·德瑞克相比，赞美他们完全而且彻底的奉献，机智而得体。演辞说宇航员们出发时的挥手告别是“挣脱地球粗暴的枷锁”去“触摸上帝的容颜”，则巧妙地借助宗教信仰的力量给人以慰藉。“我们将继续我们的太空探索。我们会有更多的航天飞机，更多的航天机组，并且，是的，更多的平民，更多的教师飞向太空。一切都不会在此时此地停止——我们的希望我们的探索之旅正在继续。”这个语段则更是利用语言本身的节奏，向听众传递坚定的决心与无穷的力量，忧而不伤，是“挥泪继承烈士志，誓将遗愿化宏图”的美国式表达。在我看来，人教版初中语文课本选用的里根总统关于此事的另一篇演辞，似乎远不如此篇感人。                                 ——梦回濠梁

             关于“挑战者”号航天飞机悲剧的演讲

                                                   罗纳尔多·里根

女士们，先生们：

我原来打算今晚发表演讲，向你们汇报政府的工作。但今天早些时候发生的事件使我改变了那些计划。今天是一个悲痛和哀悼的日子。南希和我因挑战者号航天飞船的悲剧而痛彻心肺。我们知道我的国家和人民正和我们一起经历这一痛苦——这是国家的重大损失。

十九年前，几乎就在同一天，我们在一次可怕的地面事故中行动失去了三名宇航员；但是我们从未在飞行中失去一名宇航员，我们从未发生过这样的悲剧。也许我们都忘记了飞船全体成员所抱持的勇敢精神。但是他们——挑战者号上的七人，清醒地认识到所面临的危险并超越了它们，完成了杰出的工作。

    我们哀悼我们的七位英雄：迈克尔·史密斯、迪克·史柯比、朱迪·罗丝尼克、罗纳尔多·麦克奈尔、埃里森·奥尼祖卡、格雷戈里·贾维斯、克里斯特·迈克奥利弗。我们举国一致为他们的逝世而悲哀。

    对七位英雄的亲人，我要说，虽然我们不能感受这一悲剧的全部冲击，但我们意识到这损失的巨大。我们深深地惦念着你们。你们深爱着的人英勇无畏，他们显示出优雅的气质和特别的精神，他们仿佛在说：“给我挑战，我将笑着迎接它！”他们渴望探索宇宙发现它的奥秘。他们热望服役，而且他们做到了——他们为我们所有的人服役。

    我们成长在一个对奇迹习以为常的时代里，很难有什么事物让我们感到惊讶。然而二十五年来，美国航天计划从事的正是这奇迹般的事业。我们已经变得如此熟悉太空的话题，变得似乎忘了我们才刚刚开始。我们一直是这一领域的开拓者——他们，“挑战者”号的宇航员们是勇敢的开拓者。

    有些话，我要对那些收看了飞船升空实况转播的美国中小学学生们说。我知道这的确让人难以接受，但类似今天那样令人悲惨伤的事故的确时时发生——这是探索发现的过程中全部事实的一部分，这是抓住机会扩大人类视野时所发生的事实的一部分。未来不属于怯懦者，她属于勇敢者。“挑战者”号的宇航员们引领我们进入未来，让我们继续跟随他们。

    对于我们的航天计划，我一直抱有坚定的信念和崇高的敬意。今天发生的事情一点也不能使之有任何减损。我们从不隐瞒我们的航天计划。我们从不掩盖任何事故以保持它的神秘性。我们把这一切公诸于众。这就是“自由”的处事方式，我们不会改变它——哪怕只是一分钟。

    我们将继续我们的太空探索。我们会有更多的航天飞机，更多的航天机组，并且，是的，更多的平民，更多的教师飞向太空。一切都不会在此时此地停止——我们的希望我们的探索之旅正在继续。

    此外，我希望能同在NASA工作的每一个男人女人，同那些为这一使命工作的人们说几句话。我要告诉他们：“你们的奉献和敬业精神深深地打动了我们，给我们留下了几十年也难以磨灭的印象。我们了解你们的痛苦，让我们共同分担这痛苦。

    有一个巧合，三百九十年前的今天，伟大的探险家弗朗西斯·德瑞克死在巴拿马海滨的一条小船上。在他生活的时代，最伟大的尚待开拓的领域便是海洋。此后一位历史学家这样评论道：“他生活在海洋上，死在海洋上，葬在海洋里。”是的，今天我们可以这样评价“挑战者”号的全体宇航员——他们的奉献与德瑞克一样，完全而且彻底。

    “挑战者”号航天飞机机组全体成员以他们独特的生命形式给我们以荣耀。我们将永远铭记他们的英名。我们都还记得今天早晨我们最后一次看见他们时，他们正准备开始他们的旅程，挥手向我们告别，“挣脱地球粗暴的枷锁”去“触摸上帝的容颜。”

    谢谢你们。



Ronald Reagan: The Space Shuttle "Challenger" Tragedy Address

delivered 28 January 1986

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss.



Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But, we've never lost an astronaut in flight. We've never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle. But they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together.



For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a challenge, and I'll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.



We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for twenty-five years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and, perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.



And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off. I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.



I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program. And what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute.



We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.



I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA, or who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it."



There's a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today, we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.



The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."



Thank you.

教师之友网

重读《独立宣言》，觉得其对政府与人民关系的阐述堪称经典。对照各种译本作了校订，应该是《独立宣言》较好的译本了。不敢专美，贴出来以享同好。其中“or to fall themselves by their Hands.”一句是译为“或让他们自相残杀”还是“或让他们自取灭亡”，不是很有把握。请高明者教我。                            ——梦回濠梁
                          

                               独立宣言

                       人民的愿望、意志与希冀
                          一九七七年七月四日会议

               美国十三个州一致同意的宣言

　  

    在人类事务发展的过程中，当一个民族必须解除同另一个民族的联系，并按照自然法则和上帝的旨意，以独立平等的身份立于世界列国之林时，出于对人类舆论的尊重，必须把驱使他们独立的原因予以宣布。

　　我们认为下述真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主赋予他们若干不可让渡的权利，其中包括生存权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。为了保障这些权利，人们才在他们中间建立政府，而政府的正当权利来自被统治者的同意。任何形式的政府一旦变得对这些目标的实现具破坏性时，人民便有权改变它，或将之废除以建立一个新的政府。新政府奠基于其上的原则和组织其权利的方式，务使人民认为唯有这样才最有可能使他们获得安全和幸福。审慎的原则告诉我们，创立多年的政府是不应当由于些微的和一时的原因而予以更换的。过去的一切经验都说明，任何苦难，只要尚能忍受，人类还是倾向于忍受，而不是为正义而废除他们习惯了的政府形式。然而，当始终追求同一目标的一系列滥用职权和强取豪夺的行为表明政府企图控制人民将之置于专制暴政之下时，人民就有权也有义务去推翻这样的政府，并为他们未来的安全提供新的保障。这就是这些殖民地对苦难的长期忍耐，也是迫使他们现在改变过去的政府制度的原因。当今大不列颠王国国王的历史，就是一再伤害和掠夺的历史，其直接目标就是要建立一个凌驾于各州之上独裁暴政。为了证明这一点，兹将事实公诸于世，让公正的世人作评判。

　　他拒绝批准对公众利益最有益、最必需的法律。

　　他禁止他的殖民总督批准刻不容缓、极端重要的法律，要不就先行搁置这些法律直至征得他的同意，而这些法律被搁置以后，他又完全置之不理。

　　他拒绝批准便利大地区人民的其他的法律，除非这些地区的人民情愿放弃自己在立法机构中的代表权；而代表权对人民是无比珍贵的，只有暴君才畏惧它。

　　他把各州的立法委员召集到一个异乎寻常、极不舒适而又远离他们公共档案的地方去开会，其唯一目的就是用这样的手段使他们疲惫不堪，被迫就范。

　　他一再解散各州的众议院，因为后者坚决反对他侵犯人民的权利。

　　他在解散众议院之后，又长期拒绝另选他人，于是这项不可剥夺的立法权便归由普通人民来行使，致使在这期间各州处于外敌入侵与内部动乱的种种危险之中。

　　他力图阻止各州增加人口，为此目的，他阻挠外国人入籍法的通过，拒绝批准其他鼓励移民的法律，并提高分配新土地的条件。

　　他拒绝批准建立司法权威的法律，以阻挠司法的执行。

　　他迫使法官为了保住职位、薪金的数额和支付而仅仅服从他个人意志的支配。

　　他滥设新官署，委派大批官员到这里骚扰我们的人民，侵吞他们的财物。

　　他在和平时期，未经我们立法机构同意，就在我们中间驻扎常备军。

　　他施加影响，使军队独立并凌驾于文官政权之上。

他同他人勾结，把我们置于一种既不符合我们的法规也不为我们法律承认的权威的管辖之下，而且还批准他们炮制的各种伪法案：

    为了在我们中间驻扎大批军队；

    为了保护他们——不论这些人将对我们各州居民犯下何种谋杀罪——他都可用虚假的审判来庇护他们，使他们免于惩罚；

    为了切断我们同世界各地的贸易；

    为了不经我们同意向我们强行征税；

    为了在许多情况下剥夺我们享有陪审团的权益；

    为了以莫须有的罪名把我们押往海外受审；

    为了他在一个邻省废除英国法律的自由制度，在那里建立专制政府，扩大其疆域，使其成为一个即时的样板和合适的工具，以便向这里各殖民地推行同样的专制统治；

    为了取消我们的许多特许状，废除我们最珍贵的法律并从根本上改变我们各州政府的形式；

为了中止我们自己的立法机构，宣称他们自己拥有在任何情况下为我们制定法律的权力。

　　

    他放弃设在这里的政府，宣称我们已不受他的保护并发起反对我们的战争。

　　他掠夺我们的海洋，蹂躏我们的海岸，烧毁我们的城镇，残害我们人民的生命。

　　他此时正运来大批外国雇佣兵，以从事其制造死亡、荒芜和暴政的勾当，其残忍与卑劣已开始变得连最野蛮的时代也难以相比，他已完全不配当一个文明国家的元首。

　　他强迫我们在公海被他们俘虏的同胞拿起武器反对自己的国家，使他们成为残杀自己亲友的刽子手，或让他们自相残杀。

　　他在我们中间煽动内乱，并竭力挑唆残忍的印地安野蛮人来对付我们边境的居民，而他们的作战准则是不分男女老幼是非曲直，格杀勿论。

　　在遭受这些压迫的每一阶段，我们都曾以最谦卑的言辞吁请予以纠正。而我们一次又一次的情愿，却只是被报以一次又一次的伤害。

　　一个君主，其品格被他的每一个行为标志为暴君时，就不配君临自由的人民。

　　我们并不是没有想到我们英国的弟兄。他们的立法机关想把无理的管辖权扩展到我们这里来，我们时常把这个企图通知他们。我们也曾把我们移民出境在这里定居的情况告诉他们。我们曾呼吁他们天生的正义感和雅量，念在同种同宗的分上，弃绝这些掠夺行为，因为这些掠夺行为必然会使我们之间的联系和来往中断。可他们对这种正义和同宗的呼声也同样充耳不闻。因此，我们不得不宣布脱离他们，以对待世界上其他民族的态度对待他们：同我交战者，就是敌人；与我和平者，即为朋友。

　　因此，我们这些在全体会议上集会的美利坚合众国的代表们，以各殖民地善良人民的名义，并经他们授权，向世界最高裁判者申诉，说明我们的严重意向，同时郑重宣布：

　　我们这些联合起来的殖民地现在是，而且按公理也应该是，独立自由的国家；我们对英国王室效忠的全部义务，我们与大不列颠王国之间一切政治联系全部断绝，而且必须断绝。

　　作为一个独立自由的国家，我们完全有权宣战、缔和、结盟、通商和采取独立国家有权采取的一切行动。

　　我们坚定地信赖神明上帝的保佑，同时以我们的生命、财产和神圣的名誉彼此宣誓来支持这一宣言。

　　

签名：

约翰·汉考克（时任总统——译者注）



新罕布什尔州：

乔赛亚·巴特利特，威廉·惠普尔，马修·桑顿

马萨诸塞州：

约翰·汉考克，塞缪尔·亚当斯，约翰·亚当斯，罗伯特·特瑞特·潘恩，埃尔布里奇·杰利

罗德州：

斯蒂芬·霍普金斯，威廉·埃勒里

康涅狄格州：

罗杰· 谢尔曼，塞缪尔·亨廷顿，威廉· 威廉姆斯，奥利弗·沃尔科特

纽约州：

威廉·弗洛依德，菲利普·利文斯顿，弗朗西斯·刘易斯

新泽西州：

莫里斯·斯托克顿，约翰·威瑟斯庞，弗朗西斯·霍普金森，约翰·哈特，亚伯拉罕·克拉克

宾夕法尼亚州：

罗伯特·莫里斯，本杰明·拉什，本杰明·富兰克林，约翰·莫顿，乔治·克莱默，詹姆士·史密斯，乔治·泰勒，詹姆斯·威尔逊，乔治·罗斯

特拉华州：

凯撒·罗德尼，乔治·里德，托马斯·麦肯

马里兰州：

塞缪尔·蔡斯，威廉·帕克，托马斯·斯通，卡罗顿的查尔斯·卡罗尔

弗吉尼亚州：

乔治·威思，理查德·亨利·李，托马斯·杰斐逊，本杰明·哈里森，托马斯· 纳尔逊，李弗朗西斯·莱特富特，卡特·布拉克斯顿

北卡罗莱纳州：

威廉·胡珀，约瑟夫·休斯，约翰·佩恩

南卡罗来纳州：

爱德华·拉特利奇，托马斯·海沃德，小托马斯·林奇，小阿瑟·米德尔顿

乔治亚州：

巴顿·格威内特，莱曼·霍尔，乔治·沃尔顿。



〔说明〕

　　杰斐逊起草了《独立宣言》的第一稿，富兰克林等人又进行了润色。大陆会议对此稿又进行了长时间的、激烈的辩论，最终作出了重大的修改。特别是在佐治亚和卡罗来纳代表们的坚持下，删去了杰斐逊对英王乔治三世允许在殖民地保持奴隶制和奴隶买卖的有力谴责。这一部分的原文是这样的：

　　他对人性本身发动了残酷的战争，侵犯了一个从未冒犯过他的远方民族的最神圣的生存权和自由权；他诱骗他们，并把他们运往另一半球充当奴隶，或使他们惨死在运送途中。

　　托马斯.杰斐逊(1743-1826)，生于弗吉尼亚的一个富裕家庭。曾就读于威廉-玛丽学院。1767年成为律师，1769年当选为弗吉尼亚下院议院。他积极投身于独立运动之中，并代表弗吉尼亚出席大陆会议。他曾两次当选弗吉尼亚州长。1800年当选美国总统。

　　杰斐逊在为自己的墓碑而作的墓志铭中这样写到：
　　这里埋葬着托马斯.杰斐逊，美国《独立宣言》的作者，弗吉尼亚宗教自由法规的制定者和弗吉尼亚大学之父。

　   



The Declaration of Independence

The Want, Will, and Hopes of the People

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America



When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.



We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.



He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.



He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.



He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.



He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.



He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.



He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.



He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.



He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.



He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.



He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.



He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.



He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.



He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:



For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:



For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:



For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:



For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:



For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:



For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:



For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies



For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:



For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.



He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.



He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.



He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.



He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.



He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.



In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.



Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.



We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.



— John Hancock



New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton



Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry



Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery



Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott



New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris



New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark



Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross



Delaware:

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean



Maryland:

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton



Virginia:

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton



North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn



South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton



Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton