总统就职演说:美国16任总统亚伯拉罕·林肯第一次就职演讲(8)
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.
合众国总统的一切权威都来之于人民，人民并没有授于他规定条件让各州脱离出去的权力。
The people themselves can do this if also they choose, but the Executive as such has nothing to do with it.
人民自己如果要那样干，那自然也是可以的；可是现在的行政当局不能这样做。
His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.
他的职责，是按照他接任时的样子管理这个政府，然后,毫无损伤地再移交给他的继任者。
Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people?
我们为什么不能耐心地坚决相信人民的最终的公道呢?
Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right?
难道在整个世界上还有什么更好的，或与之相等的希望吗?在我们今天的分歧中，难道双方不都是认为自己正确吗?
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,
如果万国的全能统治者，以他的永恒的真理和公正，站在你们北方一边，或你们南方一边，
that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.
那么，依照美国人民这一伟大法官的判决，真理和公正必将胜利。
By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief,
按照目前我们生活其下的现政府的构架，我国人民十分明智；授于他们的公仆的胡作非为的权力是微乎其微的；
and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals.
而且同样还十分明智地规定，即使那点微乎其微的权力，经过很短一段时间后，就必须收回到他们自己手中。
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.
由于人民保持他们的纯正和警惕，任何行政当局，在短短的四年之中，也不可能用极其恶劣或愚蠢的行为对这个政府造成严重的损害。
My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.
我的同胞们，请大家对这整个问题平心静气地好好想一想，真正有价值的东西是不会因从容从事而丧失的。
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;
如果有个什么目标使你迫不及待地要取得它，你采取的步骤是在审慎考虑的情况下不会采取的，那个目标的确可能会由于你的从容不迫而达不到；
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,
但一个真正好的自标是不会因为从容从事而失去的。你们中现在感到不满的人，仍然必须遵守原封未动的老宪法，新个敏感的问题上，
the laws of your own framing under it; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either.
仍然有根据宪法制订的法律；而对此二者，新政府即使想要加以改变，它自身也立即无此权力。
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.
即使承认你们那些心怀不满的人在这一争执中站在正确的一边，那也丝毫没有正当的理由要采取贸然行动。
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.
明智、爱国主义、基督教精神，以及对从未抛弃过这片得天独厚的土地的上帝的依赖，仍然完全能够以最理想的方式来解决我们当前的一切困难。
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.
决定内战这个重大问题的是你们，我的心怀不满的同胞们，而并非决定于我。政府决不会攻击你们。
The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors.
只要你们自己不当侵略者，就不会发生冲突。
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."
你们并没有对天发誓必须毁灭这个政府，而我却曾无比庄严地宣誓，一定要“保持、保护和保卫”这个政府。
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends.
我真不想就此结束我的讲话，我们不是敌人，而是朋友。
We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.
我们决不能成为敌人。尽管目前的情绪有些紧张，但决不能容许它使我们之间的亲密情感纽带破裂。
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land,
回忆的神秘琴弦，在整个这片辽阔的土地上，从每一个战场，每一个爱国志士的坟墓，延伸到每一颗跳动的心和每一个家庭，
will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
它有一天会被我们的良知所触动，再次奏出联邦合唱曲。
亚伯拉罕·林肯（Abraham Lincoln，1809年2月12日－1865年4月15日），美国政治家、思想家，黑人奴隶制的废除者。第16任美国总统，其任总统期间，美国爆发内战，史称南北战争，林肯坚决反对国家分裂。
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