Fellow-Citizens of the United States: 美利坚合众国的同胞们：
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." 按照与政府本身同样古老的惯例，我出现在你们面前，简短地发表讲话，并在你们面前宣誓，履行美国宪法规定的总统在"开始执行职务前"必须宣誓的誓词。
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. 我认为，目前没有必要讨论那些没有引起特别焦虑或激动的行政事务。
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-- 南方各州人民似乎存在一种担忧，认为共和党执政后，他们的财产、和平和人身安全将受到威胁。这种担忧从未有任何合理的理由。事实上，相反的最充分证据一直存在并向他们开放。几乎在我现在发表的所有演讲中都能找到。我引用其中一次演讲中的话——
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. 我无意直接或间接地干涉各州存在奴隶制的制度。我相信我没有合法权利这样做，也无意这样做。
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: 提名并选举我的人完全知道我已经做出了这一和许多类似的声明，并且从未收回过；不仅如此，他们在我接受的纲领中，并作为对他们自己和我的法律，写入了我现在宣读的清晰明确的决议：
'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. "决议：维护各州的权利不受侵犯，特别是每个州根据自己的判断完全管理和控制其内部制度的权利，对于我们政治架构的完善和持久所依赖的权力平衡至关重要；我们谴责以任何借口用武装力量非法入侵任何州或领土的土壤，这是最严重的罪行之一。"
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. 我现在重申这些观点，这样做只是为了引起公众对最确凿证据的关注，即任何地区的财产、和平和安全都不会因即将上任的政府而受到任何损害。我还要补充说，只要符合宪法和法律，所有合法要求的保护都将愉快地给予所有州，无论出于何种原因——对一个地区和对另一个地区一样愉快。
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: 关于逃奴的移交问题存在很多争议。我现在宣读的条款与宪法的任何其他条款一样明确：
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. "根据一州法律被强迫服劳役的人，逃往另一州后，不得因该州的任何法律或规章而免除其劳役，而应根据有权要求其劳役的一方的请求移交。"
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? 几乎没有人质疑，制定这一条款的人意图是为了追回我们所说的逃奴；立法者的意图就是法律。国会所有成员都宣誓支持整部宪法——对这一条款与对其他任何条款一样。那么，对于符合这一条款规定的奴隶"应被移交"这一主张，他们的誓言是一致的。现在，如果他们能心平气和地努力，难道他们不能几乎一致地制定和通过一项法律来信守这一一致的誓言吗？
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? 关于这一条款应由国家还是州当局执行，存在一些意见分歧，但这种分歧肯定不是非常重要的。如果奴隶要被移交，由哪个当局执行对他或其他人来说几乎没有什么影响。那么，任何人是否会满足于仅仅因为关于"如何"信守誓言的无关紧要的争议而让誓言得不到遵守？
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"? 再者：关于这个问题的任何法律难道不应该引入文明和人道法理学中已知的所有自由保障措施，以使自由人在任何情况下不被当作奴隶移交吗？同时，难道不应该通过法律来强制执行宪法中保证"各州公民在各州享有公民的一切特权和豁免权"的条款吗？
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. 今天我宣誓就职，没有任何保留，也没有意图用任何吹毛求疵的规则来解释宪法或法律；虽然我现在不想具体说明国会的哪些法案应该执行，但我确实建议，无论是官方还是私人身份，遵守所有未被废除的法案要比违反任何法案并指望因其被认定为违宪而免受惩罚安全得多。
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. 自从我们国家宪法下的第一位总统就职以来，已经过去了七十二年。在此期间，十五位不同的、非常杰出的公民相继担任政府的行政部门。他们带领政府度过了许多危险，总体上取得了巨大的成功。然而，尽管有这么多先例，我现在在巨大而特殊的困难下，进入同样的任务，任期为短暂的四年宪法任期。联邦的分裂，以前只是受到威胁，现在正被大规模地企图实现。
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. 我认为，根据普遍法律和宪法，这些州的联邦是永久性的。永久性，即使没有明文规定，也是所有国家政府基本法律中隐含的。可以有把握地断言，没有任何一个合法的政府在其组织法中规定了自身的终止。继续执行我们国家宪法的所有明文规定，联邦将永远存在，除非通过宪法本身未规定的某种行动，否则不可能摧毁它。
Again: If the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, 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? 再者：如果合众国不是一个合法的政府，而只是一种契约性质的州的联盟，那么它作为一项契约，能否由不到所有缔约方的一方和平解除？契约的一方可以违反它——可以说破坏它——但合法撤销它难道不需要所有各方同意吗？
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." 从这些一般原则出发，我们发现，从法律角度看，联邦是永久性的这一主张得到了联邦本身历史的证实。联邦比宪法古老得多。实际上，它是由1774年的《联合条例》形成的。它在1776年的《独立宣言》中得到成熟和延续。1778年的《邦联条例》进一步完善了它，当时十三个州明确保证并承诺它应该是永久性的。最后，在1787年，制定和确立宪法的公开目标之一是"建立一个更完善的联邦"。
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. 但是，如果一个或部分州能够合法地破坏联邦，那么联邦就不如宪法之前完善了，因为它失去了永久性这一至关重要的要素。
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. 由此可见，任何州仅凭自身的动议都不能合法地脱离联邦；为此目的的"决议"和"法令"在法律上是无效的；任何州或各州内针对合众国权威的暴力行为，根据情况，都是叛乱或革命。
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 I shall 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. 因此，我认为，根据宪法和法律，联邦是完整的，我将在我的能力范围内，按照宪法本身明确责成我的那样，确保联邦法律在所有州得到忠实执行。我认为这样做只是我的一项简单职责，我将尽可能履行这一职责，除非我合法的主人——美国人民——拒绝提供必要的手段或以某种权威方式指示相反的做法。我相信这不会被视为威胁，而只是联邦宣布的目的，即它将在宪法范围内捍卫和维护自己。
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. 这样做不需要流血或暴力，除非国家权威被迫这样做。托付给我的权力将用于持有、占领和拥有属于政府的财产和场所，并征收关税和税款；但除实现这些目标可能需要的之外，不会有入侵，不会在任何地方对人民使用武力或在人民之间使用武力。如果在任何内陆地区，对合众国的敌意如此强烈和普遍，以至于阻止合格的居民公民担任联邦职务，那么不会试图强迫不受欢迎的陌生人担任这些职务。虽然政府在法律上可能有权强制执行这些职务的行使，但这样做的企图将如此令人恼火且几乎不可行，因此我认为最好暂时放弃这些职务的使用。
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. 除非被拒绝，邮件将继续在联邦所有地区提供。尽可能让各地人民都感受到完美的安全感，这最有利于冷静思考和反思。除非当前事件和经验表明需要修改或改变，否则将遵循这里指出的方针，在每一种情况和紧急情况下，我将根据实际存在的情况行使我的最佳判断力，以期并希望和平解决国家的麻烦并恢复兄弟般的同情和感情。
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? 在一个或另一个地区是否存在一些人无论如何都想摧毁联邦，并乐于寻找任何借口这样做，我既不肯定也不否认；但如果有这样的人，我无需对他们说任何话。然而，对于那些真正热爱联邦的人，我难道不能说几句话吗？
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? 在着手摧毁我们国家架构这样严肃的事情之前，考虑到它所有的利益、记忆和希望，难道明智的做法不是精确地确定我们为什么要这样做吗？当你逃离的部分弊病可能根本不存在时，你会冒险采取如此绝望的一步吗？当你要前往的确定弊病大于你所逃离的所有真实弊病时，你会冒险犯下如此可怕的错误吗？
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. 所有人都声称，如果所有宪法权利都能得到维护，他们就满足于留在联邦中。那么，宪法中明文规定的任何权利真的被剥夺了吗？我认为没有。幸运的是，人类的思想是如此构成，没有任何一方敢做到这一点。如果你能的话，想想有哪个实例中宪法的明文规定曾经被剥夺过。如果仅仅依靠人数的力量，多数人剥夺少数人任何明确写入宪法的权利，这在道德上可能证明革命是正当的；如果这样的权利是至关重要的，肯定会如此。但我们的情况并非如此。宪法中的肯定和否定、保证和禁止，如此明确地确保了少数人和个人的所有至关重要的权利，以至于关于它们的争议从未出现。
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. 但是，任何组织法都不可能制定出一项特别适用于实际行政管理中可能出现的每一个问题的条款。没有远见能预见，任何合理长度的文件都不能包含所有可能问题的明确规定。逃奴应由国家还是州当局移交？宪法没有明确规定。国会"可以"在领土上禁止奴隶制吗？宪法没有明确规定。国会"必须"在领土上保护奴隶制吗？宪法没有明确规定。
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. 我们所有的宪法争议都源于这类问题，我们在这些问题上分为多数派和少数派。如果少数派不愿意默许，多数派必须默许，否则政府必须停止。没有其他选择，因为继续政府就是一方或另一方的默许。如果在这种情况下，少数派宁愿脱离也不愿默许，他们就树立了一个先例，这个先例反过来将分裂和摧毁他们，因为当多数派拒绝受少数派控制时，他们自己的少数派将脱离他们。例如，一两年后，新邦联的任何部分为什么不能像现在联邦的部分声称脱离联邦那样，任意再次脱离呢？所有怀有分裂情绪的人现在都在接受这样做的精确性格训练。
Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose a new union as to produce harmony only and prevent renewed secession? 组成新联盟的各州之间是否存在如此完美的利益同一性，以至于只会产生和谐并防止再次分裂？
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. 显然，分裂的核心思想是无政府状态的本质。受到宪法制约和限制的多数派，并且总是随着公众意见和情绪的深思熟虑的变化而轻易变化，是自由人民唯一真正的主权。谁拒绝它，就必然走向无政府状态或专制。一致是不可能的。少数派的统治作为一种永久安排是完全不可接受的；因此，拒绝多数原则，剩下的就是某种形式的无政府状态或专制。
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. 我没有忘记有些人认为宪法问题应由最高法院决定，我也不否认这些决定在任何案件中对诉讼当事人关于该案件的标的必须具有约束力，同时它们也有权在所有类似案件中得到政府所有其他部门的高度尊重和考虑。虽然在任何特定案件中，这样的决定显然可能是错误的，但随之而来的邪恶影响仅限于该特定案件，有机会被推翻并永远不会成为其他案件的先例，这比不同做法的邪恶更容易承受。
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. 同时，坦率的公民必须承认，如果政府关于影响全体人民的重要问题的政策要由最高法院的决定不可撤销地确定，那么在普通个人诉讼中的当事人之间的诉讼中做出这些决定的那一刻，人民将不再是自己的统治者，在这方面实际上已经将他们的政府交给了那个杰出的法庭。在这种观点中，并不是对法院或法官的攻击。决定适当提交给他们的案件是他们不能回避的职责，如果其他人试图将他们的决定用于政治目的，这不是他们的过错。
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. 我国的一个地区认为奴隶制是"正确的"，应该扩展，而另一个地区认为它是"错误的"，不应该扩展。这是唯一实质性的争端。宪法中的逃奴条款和禁止外国奴隶贸易的法律，在一个人民道德观念不完全支持法律本身的社区中，也许都执行得和任何法律一样好。绝大多数人民在这两种情况下都遵守枯燥的法律义务，少数人在每种情况下都违反。我认为，这不能完全治愈，在地区分离后，两种情况都会比以前更糟。现在被不完全禁止的外国奴隶贸易最终将在一个地区不受限制地恢复，而现在只部分移交的逃奴将在另一个地区完全不被移交。
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. 从物理上讲，我们无法分离。我们无法将各自的地区彼此移开，也无法在它们之间建造一堵不可逾越的墙。夫妻可以离婚，离开彼此的视线并超出彼此的范围，但我国的不同地区不能这样做。它们必须面对面，友好或敌对的交往必须继续在它们之间进行。那么，是否有可能使这种交往在分离后比分离前更有利或更令人满意呢？外国人能比朋友更容易制定条约吗？条约能在外国人之间比在朋友之间更忠实地执行吗？假设你们开战，你们不能永远战斗；当双方都遭受巨大损失而双方都没有获得任何好处后，你们停止战斗时，关于交往条件的相同老问题又会出现在你们面前。
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. 这个国家及其制度属于居住在其中的人民。当他们对现有政府感到厌倦时，他们可以行使他们的"宪法"权利来修改它，或行使他们的"革命"权利来分裂或推翻它。我不能忽视这样一个事实，即许多值得尊敬和爱国的公民希望修改国家宪法。虽然我不建议修改，但我完全承认人民对整个问题的合法权威，可以按照宪法本身规定的两种方式之一行使；在现有情况下，我倾向于支持而不是反对为人民提供一个公平的机会来对此采取行动。
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. 我冒昧补充说，对我来说，制宪会议方式似乎更可取，因为它允许修正案由人民自己发起，而不是只允许他们接受或拒绝由其他人发起的提案，这些人不是专门为此目的选择的，并且可能不是他们希望接受或拒绝的那种提案。我了解到一项宪法修正案提案——然而我没有看到——已经在国会获得通过，大意是联邦政府永远不得干涉各州的内部制度，包括被强迫服劳役的人的制度。为了避免对我所说的话产生误解，我偏离不谈特定修正案的目的，以便说，既然我认为这样的规定现在是隐含的宪法法律，我不反对将其明确化并使其不可撤销。
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. 行政长官的所有权力都来自人民，他们没有授予他任何权力来确定各州分离的条件。人民自己如果愿意，可以这样做，但行政部门本身与此无关。他的职责是管理他接手时的现有政府，并将其完好无损地传递给他的继任者。
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. 为什么不耐心地相信人民最终的正义呢？世界上有更好或同样的希望吗？在我们目前的分歧中，任何一方是否不相信自己是正确的？如果全能的国家统治者，以他永恒的真理和正义，站在你们北方一边，或站在你们南方一边，那么通过美国人民这个伟大法庭的判断，那种真理和正义肯定会占上风。
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. 根据我们所生活的政府架构，人民明智地给予他们的公仆很少的作恶权力，并以同样的智慧规定在很短的时间间隔内将那一点点权力归还他们自己手中。只要人民保持他们的美德和警惕，任何行政部门无论多么邪恶或愚蠢，都不可能在短短四年内对政府造成严重损害。
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. 我的同胞们，所有人都冷静而充分地考虑这整个问题。花时间不会损失任何有价值的东西。如果有任何目的要催促你们仓促采取一个你们永远不会深思熟虑采取的步骤，那个目的将因花时间而受挫；但没有任何好的目的会因此受挫。你们中那些现在不满的人仍然拥有完整的旧宪法，在敏感问题上，拥有你们自己根据它制定的法律；而新政府即使愿意，也没有立即改变任何一方的权力。
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. 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. 即使承认你们这些不满的人在争议中站在正确的一边，仍然没有任何好的理由采取仓促行动。智慧、爱国主义、基督教信仰以及对从未抛弃这片受祝福土地的他的坚定依赖，仍然有能力以最好的方式调整我们目前所有的困难。
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." 我不满的同胞们，内战这一重大问题掌握在你们手中，而不是在我手中。政府不会攻击你们。除非你们自己成为侵略者，否则你们不会有冲突。你们没有在天堂注册的誓言要摧毁政府，而我将有最庄严的誓言来"保存、保护和捍卫它"。
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. 我不愿结束。我们不是敌人，而是朋友。我们必须不是敌人。尽管激情可能已经绷紧，但它绝不能打破我们的爱的纽带。记忆的神秘弦线，从每一个战场和爱国者的坟墓延伸到这片广阔土地上每一颗跳动的心和家庭壁炉，当再次被拨动时——正如它们肯定会被我们本性中更好的天使所拨动——将再次奏响联邦的合唱。
