Friends and Fellow Citizens: 朋友们，同胞们：
The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the Executive Government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. 新一届选举联邦行政部门负责人的时间已不远，你们必须开始考虑由谁来担当这一重要职责。我认为现在应当告知你们，我已决定不再参选。这一决定尤其有助于公众意见的更清晰表达。
I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both. 同时，我请求你们公正地相信，我做出这一决定并非没有认真考虑所有涉及一个忠诚公民与国家关系的因素；在撤回我的服务意愿（否则沉默可能被理解为愿意继续任职）时，我并非对你们未来的利益热情有所减退，也不是对你们过去的善意感激减少，而是完全确信这一步骤与两者都相符。
The acceptance of and continuance hitherto in the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. 你们两次选举我担任这一职务，我接受并至今任职，始终是个人意愿服从职责观念和对你们意愿的尊重。我一直希望能更早地回到我不情愿离开的退休生活，这与我无法忽视的动机是一致的。上一次选举前，
The strength of my inclination to do this previous to the last election had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence impelled me to abandon the idea. I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and am persuaded, 我返回退休生活的愿望甚至促使我准备了一份声明，但当时我国对外事务的复杂和危急形势以及我信任的人们的一致建议，促使我放弃了这一想法。我很高兴，你们的内外事务状况不再使我追求个人意愿与职责或得体感相冲突。我相信，
whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that in the present circumstances of our country you will not disapprove my determination to retire. 无论你们对我的服务还保留多少偏爱，在目前国家形势下，你们不会不赞同我退休的决定。
The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed toward the organization and administration of the Government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable, Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; 我最初承担这一艰巨职责时的心情已在适当场合说明。在履行这一职责时，我只想说，我怀着良好的意愿，尽了一个判断力有限的人所能做的最大努力，为政府的组织和管理做出了贡献。一开始我就意识到自己能力不足，经历使我自己（或许在别人眼中更是如此）更加倾向于自我怀疑；日益增长的年事每天都在提醒我，
and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 退休的宁静对我来说既是必需的，也是受欢迎的。我确信，如果说我的服务在某些情况下具有特殊价值，那也是暂时的。因此，当选择和谨慎邀请我离开政治舞台时，我感到安慰的是，爱国心并不禁止我这样做。
In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my political life my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me, and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. 在展望即将结束我政治生涯的时刻，我的感情不允许我不深切感谢我亲爱的国家给予我的诸多荣誉；更感谢它始终如一地对我的支持，以及我因此获得的机会，得以通过忠诚而坚持不懈的服务来表达我对国家不可动摇的热爱，尽管服务的效用与我的热情并不相称。
If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise and as an instructive example in our annals that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead; amidst appearances sometimes dubious; vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging; in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts and a guaranty of the plans by which they were effected. 如果这些服务给国家带来了益处，请永远记住这是你们的光荣，并作为我们历史中的一个有益范例：在各种激情向各个方向激荡、容易导致误导的情况下；在有时前景不明的情况下；在命运起伏常常令人沮丧的情况下；在不时因缺乏成功而招致批评精神的情况下，你们始终如一的支持是我努力的重要支柱，
Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution which is the work of your hands may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, 也是实现计划的保证。我深刻铭记这一点，我将带着它走向坟墓，作为一种强烈的激励，不断祈祷天堂继续赐予你们最美好的恩惠；愿你们的团结和兄弟情谊永存；愿你们亲手制定的自由宪法得到神圣维护；愿其在各部门的管理中体现智慧和美德；最后，愿这些州的人民在自由的庇护下，
may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. 通过小心维护和谨慎使用这一福泽，使幸福臻于完美，并赢得尚未知晓自由的每一个国家的赞赏、爱戴和采纳。
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare which can not end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to that solicitude, urge me on an occasion like the present to offer to your solemn contemplation and to recommend to your frequent review some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. 或许，我应该在此停笔。但对你们福祉的关怀（这种关怀只有我生命结束时才会停止）以及由此产生的对危险的担忧，促使我在今天这样的场合向你们提出一些值得深思的意见，并建议你们经常回顾。这些意见是经过深思熟虑和相当观察的结果，在我看来，对你们作为一个民族的幸福持久至关重要。
These will be offered to you with the more freedom as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget as an encouragement to it your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. 我更愿意提出这些意见，因为你们只会从中看到一位即将离去的朋友无私的警告，他不可能有任何个人动机来影响他的建议。我也不能忘记，你们在以前类似的场合曾宽容地接受了我的意见，这对我是一种鼓励。
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. 自由之爱已融入你们心中的每一根纽带，无需我的建议来加强或确认这种热爱。
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth, 构成你们成为一个民族的政府统一，现在也为你们所珍视。这是理所当然的，因为它是你们真正独立大厦的主要支柱，是你们国内安宁、国外和平、安全、繁荣以及你们高度珍视的自由的支撑。但不难预见，来自不同原因和不同方面的力量将极力削弱你们对这一真理的信念，
as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; 因为这是你们政治堡垒中内外敌人将最持续、最积极（尽管常常是隐秘和狡猾地）攻击的关键点。至关重要的是，你们应正确估计国家统一对你们集体和个人幸福的巨大价值；应培养对它的真诚、习惯性和不可动摇的热爱；习惯于将其视为你们政治安全与繁荣的守护神；
watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. 以警惕的焦虑关注它的保存；反对任何可能暗示它在任何情况下可以被放弃的言论；对任何试图使国家任何部分与其他部分分离或削弱现在连接各部分的神圣纽带的企图的最初迹象，表示愤慨。
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together. 为此，你们有同情和利益的一切动机。作为一个共同国家的出生公民或选择公民，这个国家有权集中你们的感情。作为国家身份属于你们的"美国"这个名称，必须永远比任何来自地方区分的称号更能激发正当的爱国自豪感。除了细微的差异，你们有着相同的宗教、习俗、习惯和政治原则。你们为了共同的事业一起战斗并取得胜利。
The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. 你们拥有的独立和自由是共同商议和共同努力的成果，是共同危险、共同苦难和共同胜利的成果。
But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole. 然而，这些考虑无论多么有力地触动你们的情感，都远不及那些更直接关系到你们利益的考虑。在这里，我国的每个部分都发现了最有力的动机来谨慎维护和保存整体的统一。
TheNorth,in an unrestrained intercourse with theSouth,protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. TheSouth,in the same intercourse, benefiting by the same agency of theNorth,sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of theNorth,it finds its particular navigation invigorated; 北方在与南方不受限制的交往中，在共同政府平等法律的保护下，从南方的产品中找到了海上和商业企业的巨大额外资源以及制造业的宝贵材料。南方在同样的交往中，受益于北方同样的力量，看到其农业增长和商业扩展。部分地将北方的海员纳入自己的渠道，南方发现其特定的航运得到了加强；
and while it contributes in different ways to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength to which itself is unequally adapted. TheEast,in a like intercourse with theWest,already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad or manufactures at home. TheWestderives from theEastsupplies requisite to its growth and comfort, 同时，它以不同方式促进和增加国家航运的总体规模，并期待海上力量的保护，而它本身在这方面并不具备同等条件。东方在与西方类似的交往中，已经发现，并且随着内陆水陆交通的逐步改善，将越来越多地发现，其从国外带来或在国内制造的商品有了宝贵的出口渠道。西方从东方获得其成长和舒适所需的供应，也许更重要的是，
and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe thesecureenjoyment of indispensableoutletsfor its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest asone nation.Any other tenure by which theWestcan hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. 它必须必然地将自己产品不可或缺的出口的安全享受归功于联邦大西洋一侧的力量、影响力和未来海上力量，这是由不可分割的共同利益作为一个国家所指引的。西方以任何其他方式持有这一重要优势——无论是依靠自身的单独力量还是与任何外国势力建立背叛性和非自然的联系——本质上都是不稳定的。
While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined can not fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations, and what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, 因此，既然我国的每个部分都对统一有着直接和特殊的利益，所有部分结合起来，在联合的手段和努力中必然会找到更大的力量、更多的资源、相对更大的外部危险安全保障、较少被外国打断和平的情况，以及具有不可估量价值的是，它们必须从统一中获得豁免，免于彼此之间的纷争和战争，这些纷争和战争常常困扰没有被同一政府联系在一起的邻国，
which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and imbitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, 仅凭它们自己的竞争就足以产生，但外国相反的联盟、依附和阴谋会刺激和加剧这些纷争和战争。因此，它们也将避免那些庞大军事机构的必要性，无论在何种政府形式下，这些机构对自由都是不祥的，尤其对共和自由是敌对的。从这个意义上说，你们的统一应被视为你们自由的主要支柱，
and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. 对统一的热爱应使你们珍视自由的保存。
These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. 这些考虑对每个善于思考和有道德的人来说都是有说服力的，并表明维护统一是爱国愿望的首要目标。有人怀疑一个共同政府能否涵盖如此大的范围吗？让经验来解决。在这种情况下，仅仅听取推测是有罪的。我们有理由希望，整体的适当组织，加上各细分部分政府的辅助作用，将为这一实验带来圆满结果。
It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. 这完全值得进行一次公平和充分的实验。鉴于影响我国所有部分的如此强大和明显的统一动机，在经验尚未证明其不可行之前，总有理由怀疑那些在任何地方试图削弱其纽带的人的爱国心。
In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties bygeographical discriminations--NorthernandSouthern, AtlanticandWestern-- whencedesigning men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. 在考虑可能扰乱我们统一的原因时，令人严重关切的是，竟然有人提供了以地理区分来划分党派的理由——北方和南方，大西洋沿岸和西部——当居心不良的人可能试图激起一种信念，即存在真正的地方利益和观点差异时。党派在特定地区获取影响力的手段之一，是歪曲其他地区的意见和目标。
You can not shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head. They have seen in the negotiation by the Executive and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event throughout the United States, 你们应尽可能避免由这些歪曲引起的猜忌和不满；它们倾向于使那些本应因兄弟情谊而团结在一起的人彼此疏远。我国西部的居民最近在这方面得到了有益的教训。他们从行政部门的谈判、参议院对与西班牙条约的一致批准，以及整个联邦对这一事件的普遍满意中，看到了决定性的证据，
a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi. They have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties that with Great Britain and that with Spain--which secure to them everything they could desire in respect to our foreign relations toward confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the union by which they were procured? 证明在他们中间传播的关于联邦政府和大西洋各州对密西西比河利益不友好的政策的怀疑是毫无根据的。他们见证了两项条约的签订——与英国和西班牙的条约——这些条约在我国对外关系方面确保了他们所期望的一切，以确认他们的繁荣。他们难道不应该依靠促成这些优势的统一来维护这些优势吗？他们难道不应该从此对那些建议者（如果有的话）充耳不闻，
Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens? 那些人会将他们与兄弟分离并与外国人联系在一起吗？
To the efficacy and permanency of your union a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute. They must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate union and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This Government, 为了你们统一的效力和持久，一个整体的政府是不可或缺的。各部分之间无论多么严格的联盟都不能充分替代。它们不可避免地会经历所有时代所有联盟都经历过的违反和中断。意识到这一重要真理，你们通过采纳一部比你们以前的政府更适合紧密统一和有效管理共同事务的宪法，改进了你们的第一次尝试。
the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. 这个政府是我们自己选择的产物，不受影响和恐吓，在充分调查和成熟审议后通过，原则完全自由，权力分配合理，既安全又有力，并包含自我修正的规定，完全值得你们的信任和支持。尊重其权威，遵守其法律，默许其措施，是真正自由的基本原则所规定的义务。
The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time exists till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. 我们政治制度的基础是人民制定和修改政府宪法的权利。但在全体人民通过明确和真实的行为改变之前，任何时候存在的宪法对所有人都具有神圣的约束力。人民有权建立政府的观念本身就预设了每个个人服从已建立政府的义务。
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community, and, 一切阻碍法律执行的行为，一切以任何似是而非的名义组织的团体和协会，其真正目的是指导、控制、抵消或恐吓既定当局的正常审议和行动，都是对这一基本原则的破坏，具有致命的倾向。它们有助于组织派别；赋予它人为和异常的力量；用一个政党的意志代替国家授权的意志，这个政党往往是社会中少数但狡猾和有进取心的群体，
according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. 并根据不同政党的交替胜利，使公共行政成为派系不一致和不协调计划的镜子，而不是由共同审议和相互利益调整的一致和有益计划的工具。
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. 尽管上述描述的团体或协会有时可能达到民众的目的，但随着时间的推移，它们很可能成为狡猾、野心勃勃和无原则的人能够颠覆人民权力、篡夺政府控制权的有力工具，然后摧毁那些使他们登上不公正统治地位的工具。
Toward the preservation of your Government and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what can not be directly overthrown. 为了维护你们的政府和当前幸福状态的持久，不仅需要你们坚决反对对其公认权威的不规则反对，还需要你们小心抵制对其原则的创新精神，无论借口多么似是而非。一种攻击方式可能是以宪法形式进行修改，这些修改将削弱制度的活力，从而破坏无法直接推翻的东西。在所有可能邀请你们进行的变革中，
In all the changes to which you may be invited remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; 请记住，时间和习惯至少与其他人类制度一样，对于确定政府的真正性质是必要的；经验是检验一个国家现有宪法真正倾向的最可靠标准；仅凭假设和意见就轻易进行变革，会因假设和意见的无限多样性而导致永久变革；尤其要记住，
and remember especially that for the efficient management of your common interests in a country so extensive as ours a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, 在像我们这样广阔的国家有效管理共同利益，一个与自由完美安全相一致的尽可能有力的政府是不可或缺的。自由本身将在这样一个权力适当分配和调整的政府中找到最可靠的守护者。事实上，当政府太软弱而无法抵御派系的图谋，无法将社会每个成员限制在法律规定的范围内，无法维持所有人对人身和财产权利的安全和平静享受时，
and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. 自由几乎只是一个空洞的名称。
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. 我已经向你们暗示了国家中党派的危险，特别是基于地理区分建立党派的危险。现在让我从更全面的角度来看，并以最严肃的方式警告你们反对普遍的党派精神的有害影响。
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy. 不幸的是，这种精神与我们的本性不可分割，植根于人类心灵最强烈的激情之中。它以不同的形式存在于所有政府中，或多或少被压制、控制或抑制；但在民主形式的政府中，它表现得最为猖獗，确实是它们最坏的敌人。
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, 一个派别对另一个派别的交替统治，因党派纷争自然产生的复仇精神而加剧，这种统治在不同时代和国家犯下了最可怕的暴行，其本身就是一种可怕的专制。但这最终导致更正式和永久的专制。由此产生的混乱和苦难逐渐使人们倾向于在个人的绝对权力中寻求安全和安宁，迟早，某个占优势的派系的首领，比他的竞争对手更有能力或更幸运，
turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty. 会利用这种倾向，在公共自由的废墟上提升自己。
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 无需展望这种极端情况（尽管不应完全忽视），党派精神的常见和持续危害就足以使明智的人民认识到阻止和限制它是他们的利益和职责。
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passion. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. 它总是分散公共议会的注意力，削弱公共行政。它以毫无根据的猜忌和虚假警报煽动社区；激起一部分人对另一部分人的敌意；有时引发暴乱和叛乱。它为外国影响和腐败打开大门，这些通过党派激情的渠道更容易进入政府本身。因此，一个国家的政策和意志受制于另一个国家的政策和意志。
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose; 有一种观点认为，自由国家的党派是对政府管理的有益制衡，并有助于保持自由精神。在一定范围内，这可能是正确的；在君主制政府中，爱国心可能会宽容地看待党派精神，如果不是赞成的话。但在民主性质的政府中，在纯粹选举的政府中，这种精神不应被鼓励。从其本质倾向来看，肯定总会有足够的这种精神来实现每一个有益的目的；
and there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume. 由于不断存在过度的危险，应该通过公众舆论的力量来减轻和缓和它。一场不可熄灭的火，需要持续的警惕来防止它爆发成火焰，否则它将不是温暖，而是吞噬一切。
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administration to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. 同样重要的是，自由国家的思维习惯应促使那些受托管理国家的人谨慎地将自己限制在各自的宪法范围内，避免在行使一个部门的权力时侵犯另一个部门。侵犯的精神倾向于将所有部门的权力集中在一个部门，从而无论政府形式如何，都创造一个真正的专制。
A just estimate of that love of power and proneness to abuse it which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. 对人类心中占主导地位的权力欲和滥用权力倾向的正确估计，足以使我们相信这一立场的真实性。通过将政治权力分割和分配给不同的保管人，并使每个保管人成为公共福利的守护者，防止其他保管人的侵犯，在行使政治权力时进行相互制衡的必要性，已经被古今实验所证明，其中一些就在我们国家和我们自己的眼前。维护它们必须与建立它们同样必要。
If in the opinion of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield. 如果人民认为宪法权力的分配或修改在任何特定方面是错误的，让它通过宪法指定的方式通过修正案来纠正。但不要通过篡夺进行改变；因为尽管在一个例子中这可能是善的工具，但它是自由政府被摧毁的惯常武器。先例在永久的邪恶中总是大大超过使用它在任何时候可能产生的任何部分或暂时的利益。
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness--these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, 在所有导致政治繁荣的性格和习惯中，宗教和道德是不可或缺的支柱。任何试图颠覆这些人类幸福伟大支柱——这些人类和公民职责最坚定支撑的人，都无权要求爱国的敬意。纯粹的政治家与虔诚的人一样，应该尊重和珍视它们。一本书无法追溯它们与私人和公共幸福的所有联系。只需简单地问：
if the sense of religious obligationdesertthe oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. 如果宗教义务感抛弃了作为法院调查工具的誓言，财产、名誉和生命的安全在哪里？让我们谨慎地假设道德可以在没有宗教的情况下维持。无论精致教育对特殊结构的心灵有多大影响，理性和经验都禁止我们期望国家道德能够在排除宗教原则的情况下盛行。
It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions 'for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. 事实上，美德或道德是民主政府的必要源泉。这条规则或多或少有力地适用于每一种自由政府。谁是自由政府的真诚朋友，能对动摇其基础的企图漠不关心？那么，作为首要重要的目标，促进普及知识的机构。政府结构赋予公众舆论力量的程度越高，公众舆论的启蒙就越重要。
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars have occasioned, 作为力量和安全的一个非常重要的来源，珍视公共信用。维护它的一种方法是尽可能少地使用它，通过培育和平避免开支，但也要记住，及时支出以准备危险常常防止更大的支出以抵御危险；同样避免债务积累，不仅通过避免开支，而且通过在和平时期大力努力偿还不可避免的战争所造成的债务，
not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives; but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; 不要不慷慨地将我们自己应该承担的负担留给后代。这些准则的执行属于你们的代表；但公众舆论必须合作。为了方便他们履行职责，你们必须实际记住，偿还债务必须有收入；有收入必须有税收；任何税收都不可能设计得完全不方便和不愉快；
that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the Government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at any time dictate. 选择适当对象（这总是一种困难的选择）所固有的尴尬，应该是对政府选择税收时行为的坦诚解释以及对公共紧急情况可能随时要求的获取收入措施的默许精神的决定性动机。
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct. And can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. 对所有国家遵守诚信和正义。与所有国家培养和平与和谐。宗教和道德要求这种行为。难道良好的政策不同样要求吗？一个自由、开明且在不远的将来成为伟大国家的民族，给人类树立一个始终以崇高的正义和仁慈为指导的宽宏大量且新颖的榜样，将是值得的。
Who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices? 谁能怀疑，随着时间的推移，这样一个计划的成果将充分回报因坚定坚持它而可能失去的任何暂时优势？难道天意没有将一个国家的永久幸福与其美德联系起来吗？至少，这个实验受到每一种使人类高尚的情感的推荐。唉！它的恶习是否使其成为不可能？
In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments for others should be excluded, and that in place of them just and amicable feelings toward all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. 在执行这样一个计划时，最重要的是排除对特定国家的永久、根深蒂固的反感和对其他国家的热情依恋，代之以培养对所有国家的公正和友好感情。一个对另一个国家习惯性仇恨或习惯性喜爱的民族，在某种程度上是奴隶。它是其仇恨或喜爱的奴隶，两者都足以使其偏离职责和利益。
Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. 一个国家对另一个国家的反感使双方更容易提供侮辱和伤害，抓住轻微的冒犯原因，并在发生意外或琐碎争端时傲慢和固执。
Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation prompted by ill will and resentment sometimes impels to war the government contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject. At other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, 因此频繁发生冲突，顽固、恶毒和血腥的争斗。有时，被恶意和怨恨驱使的民族会不顾政策的最佳计算，推动政府走向战争。政府有时也参与民族的倾向，采纳理性会拒绝的激情。在其他时候，它使民族的仇恨服从于由骄傲、野心和其他邪恶和有害动机煽动的敌对计划。国家的和平常常，有时甚至自由，
of nations has been the victim. 成为受害者。
So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, 同样，一个民族对另一个民族的热情依恋也会产生各种邪恶。对偏爱的民族的同情，在不存在真正共同利益的情况下制造虚假共同利益的幻觉，并将另一个民族的仇恨注入其中，使前者在没有充分诱因或理由的情况下参与后者的争吵和战争。它还导致向偏爱的民族让步而拒绝给予其他民族的特权，
which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill will, and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without odium, sometimes even with popularity, gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, 这容易双重伤害做出让步的民族：不必要地放弃本应保留的东西，并激起被拒绝平等特权的各方的嫉妒、恶意和报复倾向；它给那些致力于偏爱的民族的野心勃勃、腐败或被欺骗的公民提供了便利，使他们能够背叛或牺牲自己国家的利益而不受指责，有时甚至获得声望，
a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 用对义务的正当责任感、对公众舆论的值得称赞的尊重或对公共利益的值得称赞的热情来粉饰野心、腐败或迷恋的卑鄙或愚蠢的顺从。
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak toward a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence ( I conjure you to believe me, 作为无数方式外国影响的渠道，这种依恋特别令真正开明和独立的爱国者感到震惊。它们提供了多少机会来操纵国内派系、施展诱惑之术、误导公众舆论、影响或恐吓公共议会！一个弱小或小国对一个强大国家的这种依恋，注定前者成为后者的卫星。同胞们，请相信我，自由人民应该时刻警惕外国影响的阴险诡计，
fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to beconstantlyawake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. 因为历史和经验证明，外国影响是共和政府最有害的敌人之一。但这种警惕要有用，必须是公正的，否则它就成为要避免的影响的工具，而不是防御手段。对一个外国的过度偏爱和对另一个的过度厌恶，使受其影响的人只看到一方的危险，并有助于掩盖甚至支持另一方的影响手段。
Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests. 真正的爱国者可能抵制偏爱的阴谋，却容易被怀疑和厌恶，而其工具和被欺骗者则篡夺人民的掌声和信任，以牺牲他们的利益。
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 我们与外国交往的伟大行为准则是，在扩大商业关系的同时，与它们保持尽可能少的政治联系。就我们已经形成的约定而言，让我们以完美的诚信履行它们。到此为止。
Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. 欧洲有一套基本利益，对我们来说无关紧要或关系甚远。因此，她必然会频繁陷入争端，其原因本质上与我们的关切无关。因此，我们不明智地通过人为纽带将自己卷入她政治的寻常变迁或她友谊与敌意的寻常组合和冲突之中。
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, 我们孤立和遥远的处境邀请并使我们能够走不同的道路。如果我们保持一个民族，在一个高效政府之下，不久的将来我们就可以抵御外来干扰的实质性伤害；我们可以采取这样一种态度，使我们可能随时决定的中立得到严格尊重；当交战国无法对我们进行征服时，它们不会轻易冒险挑衅我们；
shall counsel. 当我们可以根据正义指引的利益选择和平或战争时。
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice? 为什么放弃如此特殊处境的优势？为什么离开自己的立场去站在外国的土地上？为什么通过将我们的命运与欧洲任何部分交织在一起，将我们的和平与繁荣卷入欧洲野心、竞争、利益、情绪或任性的罗网之中？
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. 我们的真正政策是避免与外国世界任何部分建立永久联盟，我的意思是，就我们现在自由这样做而言；因为不要认为我能够支持对现有约定的不忠。我认为诚实始终是最好的政策，这一格言对公共事务和私人事务同样适用。因此，我重申，让这些约定按照其真正意义得到遵守。但在我看来，没有必要也不明智地扩展它们。
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. 始终通过适当的设施保持自己处于可敬的防御姿态，我们可以安全地依靠临时联盟来应对特殊紧急情况。
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand, neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the Government to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, 与所有国家的和谐、自由交往受到政策、人道和利益的推荐。但即使我们的商业政策也应保持平等和公正的态度，既不寻求也不给予独家优惠或偏好；顺应事物的自然进程；以温和的方式扩散和多样化商业流，但不强行推动；与愿意这样做的国家建立约定的交往规则，以赋予贸易稳定的进程，定义我们商人的权利，并使政府能够支持他们，
the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, 这些规则应是当前情况和相互意见所允许的最佳规则，但应是暂时的，并根据经验和情况不时放弃或改变；始终牢记，一个国家从另一个国家寻求无私的优惠是愚蠢的；无论它接受什么，都必须以其部分独立为代价；通过这种接受，它可能使自己处于为名义上的优惠付出等价物的境地，
and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. 却因没有给予更多而被指责忘恩负义。指望或计算国家间的真正优惠是最大的错误。这是一种必须由经验纠正、应由正当自豪感抛弃的幻觉。
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish--that they will control the usual current of the passions or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good--that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, 同胞们，在向你们提出一位老朋友的这些建议时，我不敢希望它们会产生我所希望的强烈和持久的印象——它们会控制激情的通常潮流，或阻止我们的民族走上迄今为止标志着民族命运的道路。但如果我可以自夸它们可能产生一些部分益处，一些偶尔的好处——它们可能不时地缓和党派精神的狂热，警告反对外国阴谋的危害，
to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism-- this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have been dictated. 防范虚假爱国心的欺骗——这种希望将是对我提出这些建议时所怀有的对你们福祉的关怀的充分回报。
How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them. 在履行我的官方职责时，我在多大程度上遵循了所阐述的原则，公共记录和我行为的其他证据必须向你们和世界证明。对我自己来说，我良心的保证是，我至少相信自己是遵循这些原则的。
In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe my proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice and by that of your representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. 关于欧洲仍在进行的战争，我1793年4月22日的公告是我计划的指标。在你们赞同的声音和你们在国会两院的代表的认可下，这一措施的精神一直指导着我，不受任何试图阻止或转移我的影响。
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined as far as should depend upon me to maintain it with moderation, perseverance, and firmness. 经过深思熟虑，并在我能获得的最佳信息的帮助下，我完全确信，在当时的所有情况下，我国有权采取中立立场，并且在职责和利益上都必须采取中立立场。采取这一立场后，我决心尽我所能，以温和、坚持和坚定的态度维护它。
The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all. 关于采取这一行为的权利的考虑，在此场合无需详述。我只想说，根据我的理解，这一权利远未被任何交战国否认，实际上已被所有国家承认。
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward other nations. 保持中立行为的义务，无需更多说明，可从正义和人道在任何国家能够自由行动的情况下对每个国家施加的维护与其他国家和平友好关系的义务中推断出来。
The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes. 遵守这一行为的利益动机最好留给你们自己思考和经验。对我来说，一个主要动机是努力为我国争取时间，以建立和完善其尚新的制度，并不受干扰地发展到必要的力量和一致性程度，这在人力范围内使其能够掌握自己的命运。
Though in reviewing the incidents of my Administration I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence, and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, 尽管在回顾我的行政事件时，我没有意识到故意的错误，但我太清楚自己的缺陷，不认为我可能没有犯下许多错误。无论它们是什么，我热切地祈求全能的上帝避免或减轻它们可能带来的恶果。我也将带着这样的希望：我的国家永远会宽容地看待它们，在我四十五年以正直的热情致力于其服务后，
the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. 无能的错误将被遗忘，就像我本人很快将进入安息之所一样。
Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love toward it which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize without alloy the sweet enjoyment of partaking in the midst of my fellow-citizens the benign influence of good laws under a free government--the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. 依靠它在这方面和其他方面的善意，并受到对它的炽热热爱（这对一个在其中看到自己和几代祖先故土的人来说是如此自然），我怀着愉快的期待展望那个退休生活，我承诺自己在其中将纯粹地享受在同胞们中间参与自由政府下良好法律的良性影响——这是我心中永远最爱的目标，也是我相信我们共同关心、劳动和危险的幸福回报。
GO. WASHINGTON. 乔治·华盛顿