WHEN it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course for America remained between unlimited submission to a foreign legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets and armies they must determine to resist. 早期人们首次意识到，美国在外国立法机构的无限服从与完全独立于其主张之间已无中间道路可走。有识之士们并不那么担心他们必须决心抵抗的强大舰队和军队的威胁。
Rather, they feared those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling Providence which had so signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than half its present number, not only broke to pieces the chains which were forging and the rod of iron that was lifted up. 他们更担心的是，关于在这个广袤国家的整体和各部分建立何种政府形式的争论与分歧必然会产生。然而，依靠纯洁的意图、正义的事业以及人民的正直和智慧，在一直显著保护这个国家的至高天意之下，当时代表人数仅略多于现在一半的这个国家的代表们，不仅粉碎了正在锻造的锁链和举起的铁杖。
But they frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched into an ocean of uncertainty. 他们毅然切断了束缚他们的纽带，驶入了一片未知的海洋。
The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary war, supplying the place of government, commanded a degree of order sufficient at least for the temporary preservation of society. 革命战争期间人民的热情和热忱弥补了政府的缺失，至少维持了社会暂时所需的秩序。
The Confederation which was early felt to be necessary was prepared from the models of the Batavian and Helvetic confederacies, the only examples which remain with any detail and precision in history, and certainly the only ones which the people at large had ever considered. 早期认为必要的邦联条例，是仿照巴达维亚和赫尔维蒂联邦的模式制定的，这是历史上唯一有详细记载的例子，也肯定是广大人民曾经考虑过的唯一例子。
But reflecting on the striking difference in so many particulars between this country and those where a courier may go from the seat of government to the frontier in a single day, it was then certainly foreseen by some who assisted in Congress at the formation of it that it could not be durable. 但考虑到这个国家与那些信使一天之内就能从政府所在地到达边疆的国家在许多方面的显著差异，当时参与国会制定邦联条例的一些人无疑预见到它不可能持久。
Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations, if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but in States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequences — universal languor, jealousies and rivalries of States, decline of navigation and commerce, discouragement of necessary manufactures. 各州不仅个人而且整个州对条例规定的忽视、对建议的漠视，如果不是对权威的违抗，很快就显现出其可悲的后果——普遍的萎靡不振、各州之间的嫉妒和竞争、航运和商业的衰退、必要制造业的受挫。
Universal fall in the value of lands and their produce, contempt of public and private faith, loss of consideration and credit with foreign nations followed. And at length in discontents, animosities, combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening some great national calamity. 土地及其产出价值的普遍下跌、对公义和私信的蔑视、在外国失去的尊重和信用随之而来。最终导致不满、仇恨、联合、部分会议和叛乱，威胁着国家的巨大灾难。
In this dangerous crisis the people of America were not abandoned by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy Constitution of Government. 在这一危险的危机中，美国人民并未丧失他们惯有的良好判断力、镇定、决心或正直。人们采取措施制定计划，以形成更完善的联盟，建立正义，确保国内安宁，提供共同防御，促进普遍福利，并保障自由的福祉。公众的讨论和审议产生了当前幸福的政府宪法。
Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the United States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation, animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed or suggested. In its general principles and great outlines it was conformable to such a system of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my own native State in particular, had contributed to establish. 在整个这些事务期间，我一直在国外为国家服务。我第一次看到美国宪法是在外国。没有被文学争论激怒，没有被公开辩论煽动，没有被党派仇恨激化，我怀着极大的满足感阅读它，认为它是善良心灵启发的智慧头脑的成果，是比任何曾经提出或建议过的方案都更适合这个国家和民族的天赋、性格、处境和关系的实验。在其总体原则和大纲上，它符合我一直最为推崇的政府体系，在某些州，特别是我自己的故乡州，我曾为之做出贡献。
Claiming a right of suffrage, in common with my fellow-citizens, in the adoption or rejection of a constitution which was to rule me and my posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in private. It was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it in my mind that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. 作为一名与同胞们享有同等选举权的公民，对于一部将统治我和我的后代以及他们和他们后代的宪法，我在任何场合、公开或私下都毫不犹豫地表达我的赞同。当时和现在，我心中对它没有任何异议，即行政部门和参议院不够永久。
Nor have I ever entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it but such as the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives in Congress and the State legislatures, according to the Constitution itself, adopt and ordain. 我也从未想过推动任何修改，除非是人民自己在经验过程中认为必要或适宜的修改，并由他们在国会和各州立法机构的代表根据宪法本身规定的方式采纳和颁布。
Returning to the bosom of my country after a painful separation from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution. The operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its friends, and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the nation I have acquired an habitual attachment to it and veneration for it. 在与祖国痛苦分离十年后回到她的怀抱，我荣幸地在新的秩序下当选担任一个职位，我已多次庄严承诺支持宪法。它的运作达到了其朋友们最乐观的期望，由于习惯性地关注它，对其施政的满意，以及对它在国家和平、秩序、繁荣和幸福方面产生的效果的喜悦，我对它产生了习惯性的依恋和崇敬。
What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love? 事实上，还有什么其他形式的政府能如此值得我们尊敬和热爱呢？
There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations of men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelligences, but this is very certain, that to a benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an assembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the other Chamber of Congress, of a Government in which the Executive authority, as well as that of all the branches of the Legislature, are exercised by citizens selected at regular periods by their neighbors to make and execute laws for the general good. 古老的观点认为，人们聚集到城市和国家是高等智慧眼中最令人愉悦的对象，这可能没有多少实质意义。但可以肯定的是，对于一颗仁慈的人类心灵来说，没有任何国家呈现的景象比我们在国会参众两院如此经常看到的集会更令人愉悦、更高尚、更宏伟或更庄严了——在这个政府中，行政权力以及立法机构所有分支的权力都由公民们定期选举产生，他们由邻居们选出，为普遍利益制定和执行法律。
Can anything essential, anything more than mere ornament and decoration, be added to this by robes and diamonds? Can authority be more amiable and respectable when it descends from accidents or institutions established in remote antiquity than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened people? For it is the people only that are represented. It is their power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. 长袍和钻石能为这一切增添任何实质性的东西，而不仅仅是装饰和点缀吗？当权力源于久远时代建立的偶然事件或制度，而不是源于诚实开明的人民的内心和判断时，它能更可亲、更可敬吗？因为只有人民才是被代表的。在每一个合法政府中，无论其形式如何，反映的都是人民的力量和威严，而且只是为了人民的利益。
The existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of the people. And what object or consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human mind? If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence. 我们这样的政府能够存在任何一段时间，充分证明知识和美德已普遍传播到全体人民之中。还有什么比这更令人愉悦的对象或考虑能呈现给人类的心灵呢？如果民族自豪感在任何情况下是正当或可原谅的，那就是当它不是源于权力或财富、宏伟或荣耀，而是源于对民族纯真、知识和仁爱的信念时。
In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties. If anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections, we would be betraying our trust. 在这些令人愉悦的想法中，如果我们忽视了我们自由所面临的危险，如果任何偏见或外部因素污染了我们自由、公平、正直和独立选举的纯洁性，我们将对自己不忠。
If an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good. 如果选举由一方通过诡计或腐败获得一票多数，政府可能是政党为自身目的的选择，而非国家为国家利益的选择。
If that solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the Government may not be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern ourselves. And candid men will acknowledge that in such cases choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance. 如果那唯一的选票能被外国通过奉承或威胁、欺诈或暴力、恐怖、阴谋或贿赂获得，政府可能不是美国人民的选择，而是外国的选择。可能是外国在统治我们，而不是我们人民自己统治自己。坦率的人们会承认，在这种情况下，选举相比抽签或偶然几乎没有什么优势可言。
Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of all nations for eight years under the administration of a citizen who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with the same virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty to independence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity. 美国人民在一位公民的领导下，八年来向所有国家的贤明和善良人士展示了这一可爱而有趣的政府体系（以及它可能面临的一些弊端）。这位公民通过长期的伟大行动，以审慎、正义、节制和坚韧为准则，领导着同样拥有这些美德、充满同样炽热爱国主义和自由热爱的人民走向独立与和平，走向日益增长的财富和前所未有的繁荣，他赢得了同胞们的感激，获得了外国的最高赞誉，并在后世获得了不朽的荣耀。
In that retirement which is his voluntary choice may he long live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services, the gratitude of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of this country which is opening from year to year. His name may be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he lives a bulwark, against all open or secret enemies of his country's peace. This example has been recommended to the imitation of his successors by both Houses of Congress and by the voice of the legislatures and the people throughout the nation. 愿他在自愿选择的退休生活中长久地享受对自己服务的美好回忆、人类的感激、这些服务给他自己和世界带来的日益增长的幸福成果，以及这个国家每年都在展开的辉煌未来前景。他的名字可能仍然是一道屏障，而他活着这一事实可能是抵御国家和平的所有公开或秘密敌人的堡垒。国会参众两院以及全国立法机构和人民的声音都建议他的继任者效仿这一榜样。
On this subject it might become me better to be silent or to speak with diffidence; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I hope, will be admitted as an apology if I venture to say that. 在这个问题上，我最好保持沉默或谨慎发言；但既然人们可能有所期待，我希望这个场合能成为一个借口，如果我冒昧地说。
If a preference, upon principle, of a free republican government, formed upon long and serious reflection, after a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth; if an attachment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious determination to support it until it shall be altered by the judgments and wishes of the people, expressed in the mode prescribed in it. 如果我原则上偏爱一个基于长期认真思考、经过勤奋公正地探求真理后形成的自由共和政府；如果我依恋美国宪法，并决心自觉地支持它，直到人民按照宪法规定的方式表达的判断和愿望对其进行修改。
If a respectful attention to the constitutions of the individual States and a constant caution and delicacy toward the State governments; if an equal and impartial regard to the rights, interest, honor, and happiness of all the States in the Union, without preference or regard to a northern or southern, an eastern or western, position, their various political opinions on unessential points or their personal attachments. 如果我尊重各州的宪法，并始终谨慎和审慎地对待州政府；如果我平等公正地关注联邦中所有州的权利、利益、荣誉和幸福，不偏袒或考虑北方或南方、东方或西方的位置，不考虑它们在非重要问题上的不同政治观点或个人情感。
If a love of virtuous men of all parties and denominations; if a love of science and letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges, universities, academies, and every institution for propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of the people. 如果我热爱所有党派和教派的有道德的人；如果我热爱科学和文学，并希望支持每一个合理的努力，以鼓励学校、学院、大学、研究院以及所有在各阶层人民中传播知识、美德和宗教的机构。
Not only for their benign influence on the happiness of life in all its stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our Constitution from its natural enemies. The spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is the angel of destruction to elective governments. 不仅因为它们对生活各个阶段和阶层以及社会各种形式的幸福产生的良性影响，而且因为这是保护我们宪法免受其自然敌人侵害的唯一手段——诡辩精神、党派精神、阴谋精神、腐败的放荡和外国影响的瘟疫，而外国影响是选举政府的毁灭天使。
If a love of equal laws, of justice, and humanity in the interior administration; if an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufacturers for necessity, convenience, and defense. 如果我热爱平等的法律、正义和内政中的人道；如果我倾向于改善农业、商业和制造业，以满足需要、便利和防御。
If a spirit of equity and humanity toward the aboriginal nations of America, and a disposition to meliorate their condition by inclining them to be more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friendly to them. 如果我对美国原住民民族怀有公平和人道的精神，并愿意通过使他们对我们更友好、我们的公民对他们更友好来改善他们的状况。
If an inflexible determination to maintain peace and inviolable faith with all nations, and that system of neutrality and impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe which has been adopted by this Government and so solemnly sanctioned by both Houses of Congress and applauded by the legislatures of the States and the public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by Congress. 如果我坚定不移地决心与所有国家保持和平和不可侵犯的信仰，坚持本政府采取并经国会参众两院庄严批准、得到各州立法机构和公众舆论赞扬的对欧洲交战国的中立和公正制度，直到国会另有规定。
If a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence of seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the friendship which has been so much for the honor and interest of both nations. 如果我对法国民族怀有个人敬意——这种敬意源于我主要在他们中间居住的七年——并真诚希望保持对两国都如此有益和光荣的友谊。
If, while the conscious honor and integrity of the people of America and the internal sentiment of their own power and energies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to investigate every just cause and remove every colorable pretense of complaint. 如果在必须维护美国人民的荣誉感和正直以及他们自身力量和精力的内在信念的同时，我热切努力调查每一个正当的原因，并消除每一个表面上的抱怨借口。
If an intention to pursue by amicable negotiation a reparation for the injuries that have been committed on the commerce of our fellow-citizens by whatever nation. And if success can not be obtained, to lay the facts before the Legislature, that they may consider what further measures the honor and interest of the Government and its constituents demand. 如果我有意通过友好谈判寻求对任何国家对我国同胞商业造成的损害进行赔偿，如果无法成功，则将事实提交立法机构，让他们考虑政府及其选民的荣誉和利益要求采取何种进一步措施。
If a resolution to do justice as far as may depend upon me, at all times and to all nations, and maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all the world. 如果我决心尽我所能在任何时候对所有国家主持正义，并与世界各国保持和平、友谊和仁慈。
If an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and resources of the American people, on which I have so often hazarded my all and never been deceived. 如果我对美国人民的荣誉、精神和资源抱有不可动摇的信心——我曾多次将我的一切寄托于此，从未被欺骗。
If elevated ideas of the high destinies of this country and of my own duties toward it, founded on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual improvements of the people deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not obscured but exalted by experience and age. 如果我对这个国家的崇高命运以及我对它的职责抱有崇高的观念，这一观念基于我早年深深铭刻在脑海中的对人民道德原则和智力进步的认识，并经经验和年龄的考验而更加崇高。
And, with humble reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes. 而且，怀着谦卑的崇敬之情，我认为有责任补充说，如果对自称基督徒的人民的宗教的崇敬，以及将对基督教的应有的尊重视为公共服务最佳推荐的坚定决心，能够在任何程度上使我满足你们的愿望。
It shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect. 我将尽最大努力确保国会参众两院的这一明智训令不会无效。
With this great example before me, with the sense and spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and interest, of the same American people pledged to support the Constitution of the United States, I entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy, and my mind is prepared without hesitation to lay myself under the most solemn obligations to support it to the utmost of my power. 有这个伟大的榜样在我面前，有同样的美国人民的理智和精神、信仰和荣誉、责任和利益承诺支持美国宪法，我毫不怀疑它将继续保持其全部活力，我也准备毫不犹豫地庄严承诺尽我最大努力支持它。
And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His providence. 愿那位至高无上的存在——秩序的庇护者、正义的源泉以及世界各时代善良自由的保护者——继续保佑这个国家及其政府，并赐予它与天意目的相符的一切可能的成功和持久。