FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: 同胞们：
At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 在第二次宣誓就任总统时，发表长篇演讲的场合比第一次少。那时，详细阐述将要采取的方针似乎是恰当的。现在，四年过去了，在这期间，关于这场仍吸引全国注意力、占用全国精力的伟大斗争的每一点和每一个阶段，公众声明不断被发表，几乎没有什么新内容可以提出。我们军队的进展——所有其他一切主要取决于此——公众和我自己一样清楚，我相信这对所有人来说都是相当令人满意和鼓舞的。对未来满怀希望，但不敢对其做出预测。
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. 四年前的今天，所有的思绪都焦虑地指向一场即将来临的内战。所有人都害怕它，所有人都试图避免它。当我在这个地方发表就职演说，完全致力于在不发生战争的情况下拯救联邦时，叛乱分子的代理人正在这座城市里寻求在不发生战争的情况下摧毁它——寻求通过谈判解散联邦并分割财产。双方都反对战争，但一方宁愿开战也不愿让国家生存，另一方宁愿接受战争也不愿让它灭亡，于是战争爆发了。
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 全国人口的八分之一是有色奴隶，他们没有普遍分布在联邦各地，而是集中在南方。这些奴隶构成了一种特殊而强大的利益。所有人都知道，这种利益在某种程度上是战争的原因。加强、永久化并扩大这种利益是叛乱分子宁愿通过战争撕裂联邦的目标，而政府声称无权做更多，只能限制其领土扩张。
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. 双方都没有预料到战争会达到如此规模或持续如此之久。双方都没有预料到冲突的原因可能在冲突本身结束之前甚至同时就已经消失。双方都期待着更容易的胜利，以及一个不那么根本和令人震惊的结果。
Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. 双方都阅读同一本圣经，向同一个上帝祈祷，并且每个人都祈求他的帮助来反对另一方。有些人竟敢请求公正的上帝帮助他们从别人的汗水里榨取面包，这似乎很奇怪，但我们不要评判别人，以免被别人评判。双方的祈祷不可能都得到回答。双方的祈祷都没有完全得到回答。
The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? 全能的上帝有他自己的目的。"世界因罪恶而有祸了；因为必有罪恶来到，但那使罪恶来到的人有祸了。"如果我们假设美国奴隶制是那些在上帝的安排下必然会出现的罪恶之一，但它在上帝指定的时间持续了之后，上帝现在愿意将其移除，并且他给北方和南方带来这场可怕的战争，作为对那些使罪恶来到的人的惩罚，我们在其中能看出任何偏离活上帝的信徒总是归之于他的那些神圣属性吗？
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 我们热切地希望，我们诚挚地祈祷，这场可怕的战争灾难能够迅速结束。然而，如果上帝愿意让它继续下去，直到奴隶两百五十年未获报酬的劳动所积累的所有财富都被耗尽，直到每一滴被鞭子抽出来的血都要用另一滴被剑刺出来的血来偿还，就像三千年前所说的那样，那么仍然必须说："耶和华的审判是真实的，全然公义。"
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 对任何人都不怀恶意，对所有人都心怀慈悲，坚定地坚持上帝赋予我们的正义，让我们继续努力完成我们正在做的工作，包扎国家的伤口，关心那些参加过战斗的人以及他们的遗孀和孤儿，尽我们所能去实现和珍惜在我们自己之间以及与所有国家之间的公正和持久的和平。