Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: 参议院和众议院的各位公民：
Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years—a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. 在人生的变迁中，没有任何事件能比本月14日收到你们命令传达的通知更让我感到焦虑了。一方面，我被我的祖国召唤——我对她的声音始终怀着崇敬和热爱——离开了我以最真挚的偏爱选择的退隐之所，在我美好的希望中，这是我晚年的庇护所，我曾坚定不移地决定在此度过余生。由于习惯加深了我的意愿，频繁的健康问题加剧了时间对我身体的侵蚀，这个退隐之所对我来说每天都变得更加必要和珍贵。
On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. 另一方面，祖国召唤我承担的职责之重大和困难，足以让最明智和最有经验的公民都对自己的资格产生怀疑，更不用说我这样一个（天赋有限且缺乏民政管理经验）本应特别意识到自身不足的人了。在这种情感的冲突中，我敢说的是，我一直忠实地努力通过公正评估可能影响我职责的每一种情况来确定我的职责。
All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead[see APP note]me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated. 我敢希望的是，如果在执行这项任务时，我过多地受到对过去事例的感激回忆或对同胞们这一超凡信任证明的深情感受的影响，从而对摆在我面前的沉重而未经考验的责任考虑得太少，那么我的错误将被误导我的动机所原谅，其后果也将被我的祖国以一定程度的宽容来评判。
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. 怀着这样的心情，我服从公众的召唤来到了当前的岗位。在这第一次官方行动中，我特别不应该省略对那位统治宇宙、主持国家议会、其天意援助可以弥补每一个人类缺陷的全能存在的热切祈祷。愿他的祝福使这个由人民为这些基本目的而建立的政府神圣化，以造福于联邦人民的自由和幸福，并愿他使政府管理中所使用的每一个工具都能成功地履行分配给他的职责。在向这位公共和私人福祉的伟大创造者表达这份敬意时，我确信这不仅表达了我自己的情感，也表达了你们的情感，以及广大同胞的情感。
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. 没有哪个民族比联邦人民更应该承认和崇拜指导人类事务的无形之手。他们迈向独立国家地位的每一步似乎都以某种天意的迹象为特征；在刚刚完成的联合政府制度的重要革命中，如此众多不同社区的平静审议和自愿同意促成了这一事件，这与大多数政府的建立方式相比，不能不使人产生虔诚的感激之情，并谦卑地期待过去似乎预示的未来福祉。
These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. 这些源于当前危机的思考在我心中留下了太深的印象，无法抑制。我相信，你们会和我一样认为，在这些情感的影响下，一个新的自由政府的进程可以最吉祥地开始。
By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. 根据设立行政部门的条款，总统有责任"向你们提出他认为必要和适宜的措施"。我现在与你们会面的情况将使我无需进一步讨论这个问题，只需提及你们集会所依据的伟大宪法宪章，它在界定你们权力的同时，指明了你们应关注的目标。更符合这些情况、也更符合激励我的情感的做法是，用对被选中设计和采纳这些措施的人们的才能、正直和爱国主义的敬意来代替对具体措施的建议。
In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. 在这些光荣的品质中，我看到最可靠的保证：一方面，任何地方偏见或依恋，任何独立见解或党派仇恨，都不会误导应该监督这个由社区和利益组成的伟大集合体的全面和平等的目光；另一方面，我们国家政策的基础将建立在私人道德的纯洁和不变原则之上，自由政府的卓越将以能够赢得公民爱戴和世界尊重的所有特质为例证。
I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. 我怀着对祖国的炽热热爱所能激发的一切满足感来展望这一前景，因为没有比这更彻底确立的真理：在自然的经济和进程中，美德与幸福之间、责任与利益之间、诚实和宽宏政策的真正准则与公共繁荣和幸福的坚实回报之间存在着不可分割的联系；因为我们也应该确信，一个无视天堂本身规定的永恒秩序和正义规则的民族，永远不应期望天堂的吉祥微笑；因为自由的神圣之火的保存和共和政府模式的命运，也许可以被公正地认为是深深地、最终地寄托在美国人民所承担的实验之上。
Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; 除了提交给你们关注的普通事务外，由第五条宪法授权的临时权力在当前时刻在多大程度上是适宜的，将由你们的判断决定，这取决于对该制度提出的反对意见的性质或产生这些意见的不安程度。关于这个问题，我不打算提出具体建议，因为我没有官方机会获得相关信息，我将再次完全信任你们的洞察力和对公共利益的追求；
for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted. 因为我确信，当你们谨慎避免任何可能危及统一有效政府利益的修改，或任何应等待未来经验教训的修改时，对自由人特征权利的尊重和对公共和谐的关注将充分影响你们关于前者如何能够坚不可摧地得到加强或后者如何能够安全有利地得到促进的审议。
To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; 在上述意见之外，我还要补充一点，这一点最适合向众议院提出。它涉及我本人，因此将尽可能简短。当我第一次荣幸地被召唤为国家服务时，国家正处于争取自由的艰难斗争前夕，我对职责的理解要求我放弃所有金钱补偿。我从未偏离过这一决定；
and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require. 由于仍然怀着产生这一决定的信念，我必须拒绝接受行政部门永久拨款中可能必不可少的任何个人薪酬，因为这不适用于我本人，并因此请求在我任职期间，我所在职位的财政预算应仅限于公共利益可能需要的实际支出。
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; 在向你们表达了这个场合所激发的我的情感之后，我现在将告辞；
but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend. 但我将再次谦卑地向人类仁慈的创造者祈祷，既然他乐于赐予美国人民以在完全平静中审议的机会，并以无与伦比的一致意见决定一种政府形式以保障他们的联合和促进他们的幸福，那么他的神圣祝福也同样明显地体现在扩大的视野、温和的协商和明智的措施中，这个政府的成功必须依赖于此。