Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I avail myself of the occasion now presented to express the profound impression made on me by the call of my country to the station to the duties of which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions. So distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would under any circumstances have commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as filled me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. 我不愿背离最受尊崇的先例，因而借眼前这个机会，表达祖国召唤我出任这一职位在我心中造成的深刻感受；我即将以最庄严的誓言承诺履行这一职位的职责。如此卓越的信任，源自一个自由而高尚民族深思熟虑、平静作出的选举；无论在何种情况下，它都足以令我满怀感激与忠诚，也使我对即将承担的重任心存敬畏。
Under the various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility allotted to me are inexpressibly enhanced. 当前种种情况使这个时期格外庄严，我感到赋予我的荣誉与责任都增加到难以言表的程度。
The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel, and that of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of these, too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen upon us at a moment when the national prosperity being at a height not before attained, the contrast resulting from the change has been rendered the more striking. 当今世界的局势确实前所未有，我国自身的处境也困难重重。这些困难又恰好在国家繁荣达到空前高度之时降临，变化所形成的反差因而格外鲜明，也使压力显得更加沉重。
Under the benign influence of our republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled growth of our faculties and resources. 在共和制度的良好影响下，当众多国家陷入血腥而耗费巨大的战争时，我们仍同各国维持和平；公正政策结出的果实，使我国的能力与资源获得了无可比拟的增长。
Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of agriculture, in the successful enterprises of commerce, in the progress of manufacturers and useful arts, in the increase of the public revenue and the use made of it in reducing the public debt, and in the valuable works and establishments everywhere multiplying over the face of our land. 农业的改进、商业活动的成功、制造业和实用技艺的进步、公共收入的增加及其在削减公债方面的运用，以及遍布国土各处不断增多的宝贵工程和机构，都是这种发展的证明。
It is a precious reflection that the transition from this prosperous condition of our country to the scene which has for some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality. 值得欣慰的是，我国从繁荣境况转入一段时间以来令我们困扰的局面，并不能归咎于任何不正当的图谋，也不能像我所相信的那样，归咎于公共决策中的任何无心之失。合众国从不抱有侵犯他国权利或安宁的欲望，而是以践行正义来培育和平，并以最严谨公正的态度履行中立义务，从而赢得交战国的尊重；这一直是合众国真正的光荣。
If there be candor in the world, the truth of these assertions will not be questioned; posterity at least will do justice to them. 只要世间尚有公允，人们就不会质疑这些说法的真实性；至少后世会给予它们公正评价。
This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each other, or impelled by more direct motives, principles of retaliation have been introduced equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued in spite of the demonstrations that not even a pretext for them has been given by the United States, and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a revocation of them, can not be anticipated. 这种无可指摘的方针，仍无法抵御交战国的不公与暴力。它们或因彼此愤怒，或受更直接的动机驱使，采取了同普遍理性和公认法律同样相悖的报复原则。合众国已证明自己甚至没有给这些措施提供任何借口，也曾以公正宽和的方式争取对方撤销这些措施；尽管如此，我们仍无法预料它们的任意法令还会延续多久。
Assuring myself that under every vicissitude the determined spirit and united councils of the nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I repair to the post assigned me with no other discouragement than what springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not sink under the weight of this deep conviction it is because I find some support in a consciousness of the purposes and a confidence in the principles which I bring with me into this arduous service. 我确信，无论局势如何变化，全国坚定的精神和团结一致的决策都将捍卫国家荣誉与根本利益。因此，我走向分配给我的岗位，唯一令我气馁的，只是自己恐怕不足以承担其重大职责。我之所以没有被这种深刻认识的重压击倒，是因为我知道自己怀有怎样的目标，也相信自己带入这项艰巨使命的原则，这给了我一些支持。
To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality toward belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion and reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones; 珍视同一切具有相同意愿的国家之间的和平与友好交往；对交战国保持真诚中立；在一切情况下，宁愿通过友好讨论和合理调解解决分歧，也不诉诸武力裁决；排除外国阴谋和对外国的偏爱，因为它们有辱所有国家，对自由国家尤其有害；
to foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of others, too proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves and too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to hold the union of the States as the basis of their peace and happiness; to support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system; 培育一种独立精神：它足够公正，不会侵犯他人权利；足够自尊，不会放弃自身权利；足够宽厚，不会怀有卑劣偏见；足够高尚，能够鄙弃他人的这种偏见；把各州联合视为其和平与幸福的基础；支持作为联邦纽带的宪法，无论其限制还是授权；尊重保留给各州和人民的权利与权力，因为它们同样是整体制度不可分割、保障其成功的要素；
to avoid the slightest interference with the right of conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in behalf of private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe economy in public expenditures; to liberate the public resources by an honorable discharge of the public debts; 不对明智地排除于民事管辖之外的良心权利或宗教职能作丝毫干涉；充分维护其他保障私人权利、人身权利和新闻自由的有益条款；节约公共开支；通过光荣清偿公债来解放公共资源；
to keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics--that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe; to promote by authorized means improvements friendly to agriculture, to manufactures, and to external as well as internal commerce; to favor in like manner the advancement of science and the diffusion of information as the best aliment to true liberty; 把常备军限制在必要范围内，始终牢记，武装且训练有素的民兵是共和国最牢固的堡垒——没有常备军，共和国的自由绝不会有危险；拥有庞大常备军，自由便无法安全；依照授权采取有利于农业、制造业、对外和国内贸易的改进措施；同样促进科学进步和知识传播，将其作为真正自由最好的滋养；
to carry on the benevolent plans which have been so meritoriously applied to the conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from the degradation and wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized state--as far as sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource which can not fail me. 继续推行那些已卓有成效地用于改变原住民近邻的仁善计划，使他们摆脱野蛮生活的卑下与困苦，分享文明状态下人的心智和习俗所能取得的进步——只要这些情感和意图有助于我履行职责，它们就将成为永不枯竭的力量来源。
It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I am to tread lighted by examples of illustrious services successfully rendered in the most trying difficulties by those who have marched before me. Of those of my immediate predecessor it might least become me here to speak. I may, however, be pardoned for not suppressing the sympathy with which my heart is full in the rich reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved country, gratefully bestowed or exalted talents zealously devoted through a long career to the advancement of its highest interest and happiness. 此外，我十分幸运，前人在最严峻困难中成功作出的杰出贡献，已经照亮了我即将踏上的道路。在这里，最不适合由我谈论的，或许正是我的直接前任。不过，他如今享有丰厚回报：亲爱的祖国满怀感激地把祝福献给他，以酬谢他在漫长生涯中热忱奉献卓越才智、增进国家最高利益与幸福。看到这一切，我心中充满由衷欣慰；我不愿压抑这种感情，或许可以得到谅解。
But the source to which I look or the aids which alone can supply my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in the other departments associated in the care of the national interests. 不过，我所寄望、而且唯一能够弥补我不足的帮助，来自同胞久经考验的才智与美德，也来自其他共同维护国家利益的政府部门中人民代表的建言。
In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future. 在一切困难面前，除我们都受到鼓励、对全能上苍的守护与引导所怀有的信心之外，我最应把信心寄托于这些力量。上苍的力量支配各国命运，他的恩泽如此显著地赐予这个正在崛起的共和国。我们理应为过去向他表达虔诚感激，也应为未来向他献上热切祈祷和最美好的希望。
