Ladies and gentlemen: I have come to a decision which I felt I should tell you and all of my fellow American citizens, as soon as I was certain in my own mind and in my own conscience that it is the right thing to do. 女士们，先生们：我已经做出了一个决定，我觉得应该尽快告诉你们和我所有的美国同胞，只要我在自己的头脑和良心上确定这是正确的事情。
I have learned already in this office that the difficult decisions always come to this desk. I must admit that many of them do not look at all the same as the hypothetical questions that I have answered freely and perhaps too fast on previous occasions. 我在这个职位上已经学到，困难的决定总是会来到这张办公桌前。我必须承认，其中许多决定与我以前自由回答的假设性问题看起来完全不同，也许回答得太快了。
My customary policy is to try and get all the facts and to consider the opinions of my countrymen and to take counsel with my most valued friends. But these seldom agree, and in the end, the decision is mine. To procrastinate, to agonize, and to wait for a more favorable turn of events that may never come or more compelling external pressures that may as well be wrong as right, is itself a decision of sorts and a weak and potentially dangerous course for a President to follow. 我的惯常做法是努力获取所有事实，考虑同胞们的意见，并与我最珍视的朋友们商议。但这些意见很少一致，最终决定权在我。拖延、痛苦，并等待可能永远不会到来的更有利的事态转变，或等待可能同样错误或正确的更紧迫的外部压力，本身就是一种决定，是一位总统可能采取的软弱和潜在危险的路线。
I have promised to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the very best that I can for America. I have asked your help and your prayers, not only when I became President but many times since. 我承诺维护宪法，按照上帝赋予我的判断力去做正确的事，并尽我所能为美国服务。我不仅在成为总统时，而且在那之后的许多时候都请求过你们的帮助和祈祷。
The Constitution is the supreme law of our land, and it governs our actions as citizens. Only the laws of God, which govern our consciences, are superior to it. 宪法是我们国家的最高法律，它支配着我们作为公民的行为。只有支配我们良心的上帝的法律高于它。
As we are a nation under God, so I am sworn to uphold our laws with the help of God. And I have sought such guidance and searched my own conscience with special diligence to determine the right thing for me to do with respect to my predecessor in this place, Richard Nixon, and his loyal wife and family. Theirs is an American tragedy in which we all -- all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must. 正如我们是一个信仰上帝的国家，我也宣誓在上帝的帮助下维护我们的法律。我寻求了这样的指引，并特别勤奋地审视自己的良心，以确定我应该如何对待我的前任理查德·尼克松以及他忠诚的妻子和家人。他们的遭遇是一场美国悲剧，我们所有人——所有人都参与其中。它可以继续下去，没完没了，或者必须有人来写下结局。我得出结论，只有我能做到这一点，如果我能做到，我就必须做到。
There are no historic or legal precedents to which I can turn in this matter, none that precisely fit the circumstances of a private citizen who has resigned the Presidency of the United States. But it is common knowledge that serious allegations and accusations hang like a sword over our former President's head, threatening his health as he tries to reshape his life, a great part of which was spent in the service of this country and by the mandate of its people. 在这件事上，我没有任何历史或法律先例可以借鉴，没有任何先例能精确地符合一位辞去美国总统职位的普通公民的情况。但众所周知，严重的指控像一把剑悬在我们前总统的头上，威胁着他的健康，因为他正努力重塑自己的生活，而他的大部分生命都是在为这个国家服务，并受其人民的委托。
After years of bitter controversy and divisive national debate, I have been advised, and I am compelled to conclude that many months and perhaps more years will have to pass before Richard Nixon could obtain a fair trial by jury in any jurisdiction of the United States under governing decisions of the Supreme Court. I deeply believe in equal justice for all Americans, whatever their station or former station. The law, whether human or divine, is no respecter of persons; but the law is a respecter of reality. 经过多年的激烈争议和分裂性的全国辩论，我得到了建议，并被迫得出结论：在最高法院的管辖决定下，理查德·尼克松可能需要数月甚至数年才能在美国任何司法管辖区获得公正的陪审团审判。我深信所有美国人都应享有平等的正义，无论他们的地位或以前的地位如何。法律，无论是人为的还是神圣的，不偏袒任何人；但法律尊重现实。
The facts, as I see them, are that a former President of the United States, instead of enjoying equal treatment with any other citizen accused of violating the law, would be cruelly and excessively penalized either in preserving the presumption of his innocence or in obtaining a speedy determination of his guilt in order to repay a legal debt to society. 在我看来，事实是，一位美国前总统，与其说是像任何被控违法的其他公民一样享有平等待遇，不如说是在维护其无罪推定或快速确定其有罪以偿还对社会的法律债务方面受到残酷和过度的惩罚。
During this long period of delay and potential litigation, ugly passions would again be aroused. And our people would again be polarized in their opinions. And the credibility of our free institutions of government would again be challenged at home and abroad. 在这漫长的拖延和潜在的诉讼期间，丑恶的激情将再次被激起。我们的人民将再次在意见上两极分化。我们自由的政府机构的信誉将再次在国内外受到挑战。
In the end, the courts might well hold that Richard Nixon had been denied due process, and the verdict of history would even more be inconclusive with respect to those charges arising out of the period of his Presidency, of which I am presently aware. 最终，法院很可能会裁定理查德·尼克松被剥夺了正当程序，而历史的判决对于他任职期间产生的那些指控将更加不确定，这些指控我目前是知道的。
But it is not the ultimate fate of Richard Nixon that most concerns me, though surely it deeply troubles every decent and every compassionate person. My concern is the immediate future of this great country. In this, I dare not depend upon my personal sympathy as a long-time friend of the former President, nor my professional judgment as a lawyer, and I do not. 但我最关心的不是理查德·尼克松的最终命运，尽管这无疑深深困扰着每一个正派和富有同情心的人。我关心的是这个伟大国家的眼前未来。在这方面，我不敢依赖我作为前总统的长期朋友的个人同情，也不敢依赖我作为律师的专业判断，我也没有这样做。
As President, my primary concern must always be the greatest good of all the people of the United States whose servant I am. As a man, my first consideration is to be true to my own convictions and my own conscience. My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My conscience tells me that only I, as President, have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book. My conscience tells me it is my duty, not merely to proclaim domestic tranquility but to use every means that I have to insure it. 作为总统，我首要关心的必须始终是我所服务的全体美国人民的最大利益。作为一个人，我首先考虑的是忠于自己的信念和良心。我的良心清楚而肯定地告诉我，我不能延长那些继续重新翻开已关闭章节的噩梦。我的良心告诉我，只有我作为总统，才有宪法赋予的权力来坚定地关闭并封存这本书。我的良心告诉我，我的职责不仅是宣布国内安宁，而且是尽我所能确保它。
I do believe that the buck stops here, that I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right. 我确实相信责任到此为止，我不能依靠民意调查来告诉我什么是正确的。
I do believe that right makes might and that if I am wrong, 10 angels swearing I was right would make no difference. 我确实相信正义即力量，如果我错了，即使有十个天使发誓我是对的也无济于事。
I do believe, with all my heart and mind and spirit, that I, not as President but as a humble servant of God, will receive justice without mercy if I fail to show mercy. 我确实相信，用我的全部身心和精神，我不是作为总统，而是作为上帝谦卑的仆人，如果我未能表现出仁慈，我将得到没有怜悯的正义。
Finally, I feel that Richard Nixon and his loved ones have suffered enough and will continue to suffer, no matter what I do, no matter what we, as a great and good nation, can do together to make his goal of peace come true. 最后，我觉得理查德·尼克松和他所爱的人已经遭受了足够的痛苦，无论我做什么，无论我们作为一个伟大而善良的国家共同能做什么来实现他的和平目标，他们都将继续遭受痛苦。
Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from July 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974. 因此，我，杰拉尔德·R·福特，美国总统，根据宪法第二条第二款赋予我的赦免权，在此授予并通过本文件授予理查德·尼克松对美国的所有罪行的完全、自由和绝对赦免，这些罪行是理查德·尼克松在1969年7月20日至1974年8月9日期间所犯或可能犯或参与的。
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-ninth. 为证，我已于我们主耶稣基督一千九百七十四年九月八日，即美利坚合众国独立第一百九十九年，在此签字。