Called from a retirement which I had supposed was to continue for the residue of my life to fill the chief executive office of this great and free nation, I appear before you, fellow-citizens, to take the oaths which the Constitution prescribes as a necessary qualification for the performance of its duties; and in obedience to a custom coeval with our Government and what I believe to be your expectations I proceed to present to you a summary of the principles which will govern me in the discharge of the duties which I shall be called upon to perform. 我原以为自己将在退隐中度过余生，如今却受召担任这个伟大自由国家的最高行政职务。同胞们，我来到你们面前，依照宪法规定宣誓，以取得履行总统职责所必需的资格；同时遵循一项与我国政府同样古老的惯例，并回应我所理解的你们的期待，向你们概述我履行受托职责时将遵循的原则。
It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable in the conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before and after obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter case the pledges and promises made in the former. 在那个著名共和国的早期，一位罗马执政官曾指出，竞逐权力与信任职位的人在当选前后表现出极鲜明的反差：他们取得职位后，很少兑现竞选时作出的保证和承诺。
However much the world may have improved in many respects in the lapse of upward of two thousand years since the remark was made by the virtuous and indignant Roman, I fear that a strict examination of the annals of some of the modern elective governments would develop similar instances of violated confidence. 自那位正直而愤慨的罗马人说出这番话以来，两千多年过去，世界虽在许多方面有所进步，但我担心，严格查考一些现代选举政府的历史，仍会发现类似的背信事例。
Although the fiat of the people has gone forth proclaiming me the Chief Magistrate of this glorious Union, nothing upon their part remaining to be done, it may be thought that a motive may exist to keep up the delusion under which they may be supposed to have acted in relation to my principles and opinions; and perhaps there may be some in this assembly who have come here either prepared to condemn those I shall now deliver, or, approving them, to doubt the sincerity with which they are now uttered. But the lapse of a few months will confirm or dispel their fears. 人民的裁决已经作出，宣布我为这个光荣联邦的最高行政长官，他们已无须再做什么。有人或许认为，我仍有动机维持某种假象，而人民可能正是在这种假象下判断我的原则和见解；今天在场的人中，也许有人准备谴责我即将阐述的主张，或虽赞同这些主张，却怀疑我现在表达它们是否真诚。然而，几个月的时间便会证实或消除这些疑虑。
The outline of principles to govern and measures to be adopted by an Administration not yet begun will soon be exchanged for immutable history, and I shall stand either exonerated by my countrymen or classed with the mass of those who promised that they might deceive and flattered with the intention to betray. 尚未开始执政的政府所提出的施政原则和措施纲要，很快就会化为不可更改的历史；届时，同胞们要么证明我无愧于他们，要么把我归入那些为欺骗而许诺、为背叛而奉承的人之列。
However strong may be my present purpose to realize the expectations of a magnanimous and confiding people, I too well understand the dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and enabled me to bring to favorable issues other important but still greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me by my country. 无论我此刻多么坚定地想实现宽宏而信任我的人民的期望，我都深知，人民乐意交到我手中的巨大权力会使我面临危险诱惑。因此，我不能不把最大的信心寄托于全能上苍的帮助；他一直保护我，也曾使祖国此前托付给我的其他重要、但远逊于今日的职责取得良好结果。
The broad foundation upon which our Constitution rests being the people--a breath of theirs having made, as a breath can unmake, change, or modify it--it can be assigned to none of the great divisions of government but to that of democracy. If such is its theory, those who are called upon to administer it must recognize as its leading principle the duty of shaping their measures so as to produce the greatest good to the greatest number. 我国宪法赖以建立的广阔基础是人民——人民一息之间可以制定它，也可以废除、改变或修正它——因此，在政府的几种主要形式中，它只能归于民主。既然理论如此，受命执行宪法的人就必须承认，其首要原则是制定能够为最大多数人带来最大福祉的措施。
But with these broad admissions, if we would compare the sovereignty acknowledged to exist in the mass of our people with the power claimed by other sovereignties, even by those which have been considered most purely democratic, we shall find a most essential difference. All others lay claim to power limited only by their own will. The majority of our citizens, on the contrary, possess a sovereignty with an amount of power precisely equal to that which has been granted to them by the parties to the national compact, and nothing beyond. 承认这些大原则以后，如果把我国全体人民享有的主权，同其他主权者所声称的权力相比，即便同那些被认为最为民主的主权相比，也会发现本质区别。其他主权都声称，其权力只受自身意志限制。相反，我国多数公民拥有的主权权力，严格等同于国家盟约各方授予他们的范围，不能超出分毫。
We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed. The Constitution of the United States is the instrument containing this grant of power to the several departments composing the Government. On an examination of that instrument it will be found to contain declarations of power granted and of power withheld. 我们不承认君权神授；我们相信，在权力问题上，仁慈的造物主并未在人与人之间作出区别，人人生而平等，唯一正当的统治权来自被统治者明确授予的权力。《合众国宪法》就是把这种权力授予政府各部门的文书。查考宪法可以看到，其中既列明授予的权力，也列明保留不授的权力。
The latter is also susceptible of division into power which the majority had the right to grant, but which they do not think proper to intrust to their agents, and that which they could not have granted, not being possessed by themselves. In other words, there are certain rights possessed by each individual American citizen which in his compact with the others he has never surrendered. Some of them, indeed, he is unable to surrender, being, in the language of our system, unalienable. 保留不授的权力又可分为两类：一类是多数人本有权授予、却认为不宜委托给代理人的权力；另一类则是多数人自身并不拥有、因而根本无从授予的权力。换言之，每个美国公民都拥有若干在同他人缔结盟约时从未放弃的权利。其中一些权利，他甚至无权放弃；用我国制度的语言说，它们不可让渡。
The boasted privilege of a Roman citizen was to him a shield only against a petty provincial ruler, whilst the proud democrat of Athens would console himself under a sentence of death for a supposed violation of the national faith--which no one understood and which at times was the subject of the mockery of all--or the banishment from his home, his family, and his country with or without an alleged cause, that it was the act not of a single tyrant or hated aristocracy, but of his assembled countrymen. Far different is the power of our sovereignty. 罗马公民引以为豪的特权，不过是抵御一个小小行省统治者的盾牌；雅典那个自豪的民主派，即使因所谓违背国家宗教信仰而被判死刑——这种信仰无人理解，有时还受到所有人嘲弄——或无论有无指控便被逐出家园、家庭和祖国，也只能以处罚并非出自一个暴君或可恨贵族，而是出自集会的同胞来安慰自己。我国主权的力量则截然不同。
It can interfere with no one's faith, prescribe forms of worship for no one's observance, inflict no punishment but after well-ascertained guilt, the result of investigation under rules prescribed by the Constitution itself. 它不能干涉任何人的信仰，不能规定任何人必须遵行的礼拜形式，也不能在依照宪法规定的规则调查并确证罪责之前施加惩罚。
These precious privileges, and those scarcely less important of giving expression to his thoughts and opinions, either by writing or speaking, unrestrained but by the liability for injury to others, and that of a full participation in all the advantages which flow from the Government, the acknowledged property of all, the American citizen derives from no charter granted by his fellow-man. He claims them because he is himself a man, fashioned by the same Almighty hand as the rest of his species and entitled to a full share of the blessings with which He has endowed them. 美国公民享有这些宝贵特权，也享有同样重要的权利：以文字或言语表达思想和意见，除须对伤害他人承担责任外不受限制；并充分参与政府带来、且公认为全民共同财产的一切利益。这些权利都不是来自同胞颁发的任何特许状。他主张这些权利，是因为他本身就是人，同全人类一样由全能者之手塑造，有权充分分享上苍赐予人类的福祉。
Notwithstanding the limited sovereignty possessed by the people of the United States and the restricted grant of power to the Government which they have adopted, enough has been given to accomplish all the objects for which it was created. It has been found powerful in war, and hitherto justice has been administered, and intimate union effected, domestic tranquillity preserved, and personal liberty secured to the citizen. 尽管合众国人民拥有的主权有限，他们授予所建立政府的权力也受到限制，但授予的权力已经足以实现政府成立的全部目标。事实证明，它在战争中力量强大；迄今也能主持正义、促成紧密联合、维持国内安宁并保障公民人身自由。
As was to be expected, however, from the defect of language and the necessarily sententious manner in which the Constitution is written, disputes have arisen as to the amount of power which it has actually granted or was intended to grant. 然而，由于语言本身并不完善，宪法又不得不写得简练，人们果然对它实际授予或原本意图授予的权力范围产生了争议。
This is more particularly the case in relation to that part of the instrument which treats of the legislative branch, and not only as regards the exercise of powers claimed under a general clause giving that body the authority to pass all laws necessary to carry into effect the specified powers, but in relation to the latter also. It is, however, consolatory to reflect that 'most' of the instances of alleged departure from the letter or spirit of the Constitution have ultimately received the sanction of a majority of the people. 这种情况在宪法关于立法部门的部分尤其明显：争议不仅涉及某项概括性条款之下所主张的权力，该条款授权立法机关制定实施列明权力所必需的一切法律，也涉及那些列明权力本身。不过，令人宽慰的是，被指偏离宪法文字或精神的事例中，“大多数”最终都得到了人民多数的认可。
And the fact that many of our statesmen most distinguished for talent and patriotism have been at one time or other of their political career on both sides of each of the most warmly disputed questions forces upon us the inference that the errors, if errors there were, are attributable to the intrinsic difficulty in many instances of ascertaining the intentions of the framers of the Constitution rather than the influence of any sinister or unpatriotic motive. 我国许多才智与爱国心最杰出的政治家，也曾在政治生涯的不同时期分别站到每个激烈争议问题的两边。这迫使我们得出结论：即使确有错误，它们往往源于确定制宪者意图本身的困难，而非任何阴险或不爱国的动机。
But the great danger to our institutions does not appear to me to be in a usurpation by the Government of power not granted by the people, but by the accumulation in one of the departments of that which was assigned to others. Limited as are the powers which have been granted, still enough have been granted to constitute a despotism if concentrated in one of the departments. This danger is greatly heightened, as it has been always observable that men are less jealous of encroachments of one department upon another than upon their own reserved rights. 在我看来，对我国制度的最大危险，并不是政府篡夺人民未曾授予的权力，而是某个部门把本属其他部门的权力集中到自己手中。授予的权力虽有限，一旦集中于一个部门，仍足以形成专制。人们对一个部门侵夺另一部门权力的警惕，往往不如对侵害自身保留权利的警惕，这使危险进一步加剧。
When the Constitution of the United States first came from the hands of the Convention which formed it, many of the sternest republicans of the day were alarmed at the extent of the power which had been granted to the Federal Government, and more particularly of that portion which had been assigned to the executive branch. 《合众国宪法》刚从制宪会议手中产生时，当时许多最坚定的共和派人士都对授予联邦政府的权力范围感到忧虑，尤其担心划给行政部门的那部分权力。
There were in it features which appeared not to be in harmony with their ideas of a simple representative democracy or republic, and knowing the tendency of power to increase itself, particularly when exercised by a single individual, predictions were made that at no very remote period the Government would terminate in virtual monarchy. 宪法中有些特征似乎不符合他们对简单代议民主或共和国的理解；他们又知道权力会自我扩张，特别是在由一人行使时，因此预言政府不用太久就会演变为事实上的君主制。
It would not become me to say that the fears of these patriots have been already realized; but as I sincerely believe that the tendency of measures and of men's opinions for some years past has been in that direction, it is, I conceive, strictly proper that I should take this occasion to repeat the assurances I have heretofore given of my determination to arrest the progress of that tendency if it really exists and restore the Government to its pristine health and vigor, as far as this can be effected by any legitimate exercise of the power placed in my hands. 我不宜断言这些爱国者的忧虑已经成为现实；但我真诚相信，近些年的措施和舆论趋势正朝那个方向发展。因此，我认为完全应该借此机会重申此前的保证：如果这种趋势确实存在，我决心阻止其发展，并在我合法行使手中权力所能达到的范围内，使政府恢复最初的健康与活力。
I proceed to state in as summary a manner as I can my opinion of the sources of the evils which have been so extensively complained of and the correctives which may be applied. Some of the former are unquestionably to be found in the defects of the Constitution; others, in my judgment, are attributable to a misconstruction of some of its provisions. Of the former is the eligibility of the same individual to a second term of the Presidency. 下面，我将尽量简要说明自己对广受抱怨的弊端来源以及可用补救办法的看法。有些弊端无疑源于宪法本身的缺陷；另一些在我看来，则来自对某些条款的错误解释。同一个人可以连任总统，便属于前一类。
The sagacious mind of Mr. Jefferson early saw and lamented this error, and attempts have been made, hitherto without success, to apply the amendatory power of the States to its correction. As, however, one mode of correction is in the power of every President, and consequently in mine, it would be useless, and perhaps invidious, to enumerate the evils of which, in the opinion of many of our fellow-citizens, this error of the sages who framed the Constitution may have been the source and the bitter fruits which we are still to gather from it if it continues to disfigure our system. 杰斐逊先生敏锐的头脑很早就发现并哀叹这一错误；人们也曾尝试运用各州的修宪权加以纠正，但至今没有成功。不过，每位总统都掌握一种纠正办法，我自然也不例外。因此，没有必要，也可能有失公允，去一一列举许多同胞认为制宪先贤的这一错误已经造成的弊端，以及它若继续损害我国制度，我们今后还将收获的苦果。
It may be observed, however, as a general remark, that republics can commit no greater error than to adopt or continue any feature in their systems of government which may be calculated to create or increase the lover of power in the bosoms of those to whom necessity obliges them to commit the management of their affairs; and surely nothing is more likely to produce such a state of mind than the long continuance of an office of high trust. Nothing can be more corrupting, nothing more destructive of all those noble feelings which belong to the character of a devoted republican patriot. 一般而言，共和国最大的错误，莫过于采用或保留一种会在受托管理公共事务者心中产生或增强权力欲的制度特征；而长期占据高度受信任的职位，最容易造成这种心态。没有什么比这更能腐蚀人心，也没有什么比这更能摧毁忠诚共和爱国者品格中应有的高尚情操。
When this corrupting passion once takes possession of the human mind, like the love of gold it becomes insatiable. It is the never-dying worm in his bosom, grows with his growth and strengthens with the declining years of its victim. 这种腐蚀性的欲望一旦占据人心，就会像贪恋黄金一样变得永不满足。它是胸中不死的蛀虫，随受害者成长而成长，并随着其年岁衰老而日益强大。
If this is true, it is the part of wisdom for a republic to limit the service of that officer at least to whom she has intrusted the management of her foreign relations, the execution of her laws, and the command of her armies and navies to a period so short as to prevent his forgetting that he is the accountable agent, not the principal; the servant, not the master. Until an amendment of the Constitution can be effected public opinion may secure the desired object. I give my aid to it by renewing the pledge heretofore given that under no circumstances will I consent to serve a second term. 如果确是如此，共和国的明智做法，至少应限制那个受托处理外交、执行法律并统率陆海军的官员的任期，使其短到不至于忘记：自己是负有责任的代理人，不是委托人；是仆人，不是主人。在宪法得到修正以前，公众舆论也能实现这一目标。我愿为此出力，重申先前的承诺：无论在任何情况下，我都不会同意连任。
But if there is danger to public liberty from the acknowledged defects of the Constitution in the want of limit to the continuance of the Executive power in the same hands, there is, I apprehend, not much less from a misconstruction of that instrument as it regards the powers actually given. I can not conceive that by a fair construction any or either of its provisions would be found to constitute the President a part of the legislative power. 宪法没有限制行政权由同一人持续掌握，这是公认的缺陷，会危及公共自由；但我担心，误解宪法实际授予的权力所带来的危险，并不逊色多少。我无法想象，公平解释宪法任何条款，会得出总统属于立法权一部分的结论。
It can not be claimed from the power to recommend, since, although enjoined as a duty upon him, it is a privilege which he holds in common with every other citizen; and although there may be something more of confidence in the propriety of the measures recommended in the one case than in the other, in the obligations of ultimate decision there can be no difference. In the language of the Constitution, "all the legislative powers" which it grants "are vested in the Congress of the United States." It would be a solecism in language to say that any portion of these is not included in the whole. 这种结论不能来自总统的建议权，因为提出建议虽是宪法赋予总统的职责，却也是他同每个公民共有的权利；总统提出的措施或许比普通公民的建议更容易被认为妥当，但最终决定者所负的责任并无不同。用宪法的话说，它授予的“一切立法权”都“属于合众国国会”。若说其中还有任何部分不包含在“一切”之内，语言上便自相矛盾。
It may be said, indeed, that the Constitution has given to the Executive the power to annul the acts of the legislative body by refusing to them his assent. So a similar power has necessarily resulted from that instrument to the judiciary, and yet the judiciary forms no part of the Legislature. There is, it is true, this difference between these grants of power: The Executive can put his negative upon the acts of the Legislature for other cause than that of want of conformity to the Constitution, whilst the judiciary can only declare void those which violate that instrument. 诚然，有人会说，宪法赋予行政部门拒绝批准法案、从而使立法机关行为失效的权力。同一部宪法也必然使司法部门拥有类似权力，但司法部门并不属于立法机关。两者确有区别：行政部门可以因法案不合宪以外的理由否决立法，而司法部门只能宣布违反宪法的法案无效。
But the decision of the judiciary is final in such a case, whereas in every instance where the veto of the Executive is applied it may be overcome by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress. The negative upon the acts of the legislative by the executive authority, and that in the hands of one individual, would seem to be an incongruity in our system. 不过，司法部门在此类案件中的裁决是终局的；行政否决则在任何情况下都可由国会两院三分之二票推翻。由行政机关，而且由一个人来否定立法机关的行为，在我国制度中似乎并不协调。
Like some others of a similar character, however, it appears to be highly expedient, and if used only with the forbearance and in the spirit which was intended by its authors it may be productive of great good and be found one of the best safeguards to the Union. At the period of the formation of the Constitution the principle does not appear to have enjoyed much favor in the State governments. It existed but in two, and in one of these there was a plural executive. 然而，同其他一些性质相近的安排一样，这项权力似乎极为必要；只要以制宪者所期望的克制态度和精神使用，它就能产生巨大益处，成为联邦最可靠的保障之一。制宪时期，这项原则在州政府中似乎并不受欢迎；当时只有两个州采用，其中一个还实行多人行政首脑制。
If we would search for the motives which operated upon the purely patriotic and enlightened assembly which framed the Constitution for the adoption of a provision so apparently repugnant to the leading democratic principle that the majority should govern, we must reject the idea that they anticipated from it any benefit to the ordinary course of legislation. 若要探究那群纯粹爱国而开明的制宪者为何采用一项表面上如此违背多数统治这一首要民主原则的规定，就必须排除他们希望借此改善日常立法过程的想法。
They knew too well the high degree of intelligence which existed among the people and the enlightened character of the State legislatures not to have the fullest confidence that the two bodies elected by them would be worthy representatives of such constituents, and, of course, that they would require no aid in conceiving and maturing the measures which the circumstances of the country might require. 他们十分清楚人民具有高度才智，各州立法机关也相当开明，因此完全相信人民选出的两个机构会成为合格代表；这些代表在构想和完善国家形势所需措施时，自然无须他人帮助。
And it is preposterous to suppose that a thought could for a moment have been entertained that the President, placed at the capital, in the center of the country, could better understand the wants and wishes of the people than their own immediate representatives, who spend a part of every year among them, living with them, often laboring with them, and bound to them by the triple tie of interest, duty, and affection. To assist or control Congress, then, in its ordinary legislation could not, I conceive, have been the motive for conferring the veto power on the President. 若认为身处首都、位于国家中心的总统，会比人民的直接代表更了解人民的需求和愿望，那实在荒谬；这些代表每年都有一段时间生活在人民中间，同他们一起生活，往往也一起劳动，并由利益、责任和情感三重纽带相联。因此，我认为，协助或控制国会日常立法，不可能是赋予总统否决权的动机。
This argument acquires additional force from the fact of its never having been thus used by the first six Presidents--and two of them were members of the Convention, one presiding over its deliberations and the other bearing a larger share in consummating the labors of that august body than any other person. 前六位总统从未以这种方式使用否决权，这一事实进一步加强了上述论点。其中两人还是制宪会议成员：一人主持会议审议，另一人在完成这一庄严机构的工作中所起作用超过任何其他人。
But if bills were never returned to Congress by either of the Presidents above referred to upon the ground of their being inexpedient or not as well adapted as they might be to the wants of the people, the veto was applied upon that of want of conformity to the Constitution or because errors had been committed from a too hasty enactment. 上述总统从未仅因法案不合时宜，或未能最好满足人民需要而将其退回国会；他们使用否决权，是因为法案不符合宪法，或因仓促立法而出现错误。
There is another ground for the adoption of the veto principle, which had probably more influence in recommending it to the Convention than any other. I refer to the security which it gives to the just and equitable action of the Legislature upon all parts of the Union. 采用否决原则还有另一个理由，它对制宪会议的影响或许超过其他一切理由。我指的是，这项权力可以保障立法机关公平公正地对待联邦各地区。
It could not but have occurred to the Convention that in a country so extensive, embracing so great a variety of soil and climate, and consequently of products, and which from the same causes must ever exhibit a great difference in the amount of the population of its various sections, calling for a great diversity in the employments of the people, that the legislation of the majority might not always justly regard the rights and interests of the minority. 制宪会议不可能没有想到：我国疆域如此辽阔，土壤、气候及由此产生的物产差异巨大；同样原因还会使各地区人口规模始终相差悬殊，人民从事的职业也极为多样，因此多数人的立法未必总能公正顾及少数人的权利和利益。
Acts of this character might be passed under an express grant by the words of the Constitution, and therefore not within the competency of the judiciary to declare void. However enlightened and patriotic they might suppose from past experience the members of Congress might be, and however largely partaking, in the general, of the liberal feelings of the people, it was impossible to expect that bodies so constituted should not sometimes be controlled by local interests and sectional feelings. 这类法案可能依据宪法明文授予的权力通过，司法部门因而无权宣布其无效。制宪者从既往经验出发，纵然认为国会议员开明爱国、总体上充分具有人民的宽厚情怀，也不可能指望这种构成的机构永远不受地方利益和地区情绪左右。
It was proper, therefore, to provide some umpire from whose situation and mode of appointment more independence and freedom from such influences might be expected. Such a one was afforded by the executive department constituted by the Constitution. A person elected to that high office, having his constituents in every section, State, and subdivision of the Union, must consider himself bound by the most solemn sanctions to guard, protect, and defend the rights of all and of every portion, great or small, from the injustice and oppression of the rest. 因此，有必要设置一位仲裁者；从其地位和产生方式看，可以期待他更为独立，较少受到这些影响。宪法设立的行政部门提供了这样的仲裁者。担任这一崇高职务的人，其选民遍布联邦每个地区、州和分区，必须在最庄严的约束下，保护并捍卫所有人和每一地区，无论大小，使其权利免遭其余部分的不公与压迫。
I consider the veto power, therefore, given by the Constitution to the Executive of the United States solely as a conservative power, to be used only first, to protect the Constitution from violation; secondly, the people from the effects of hasty legislation where their will has been probably disregarded or not well understood, and, thirdly, to prevent the effects of combinations violative of the rights of minorities. 我因此认为，宪法赋予合众国行政首长的否决权纯属防护性权力，只应为以下目的使用：第一，保护宪法免遭违反；第二，在人民意愿可能受到忽视或未被正确理解时，使人民免受仓促立法之害；第三，防止损害少数人权利的联合行动产生后果。
In reference to the second of these objects I may observe that I consider it the right and privilege of the people to decide disputed points of the Constitution arising from the general grant of power to Congress to carry into effect the powers expressly given; 关于第二个目的，我要指出，裁决因国会获得概括授权以实施明文列举的权力而产生的宪法争议，这是人民享有的权利和特权；
and I believe with Mr. Madison that "repeated recognitions under varied circumstances in acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Government, accompanied by indications in different modes of the concurrence of the general will of the nation," as affording to the President sufficient authority for his considering such disputed points as settled. 我同麦迪逊先生一样相信，“立法、行政和司法部门在不同情形下通过各种行为反复确认，并以不同方式显示全国普遍意志的赞同”，足以授权总统把此类争议视为已经解决。
Upward of half a century has elapsed since the adoption of the present form of government. It would be an object more highly desirable than the gratification of the curiosity of speculative statesmen if its precise situation could be ascertained, a fair exhibit made of the operations of each of its departments, of the powers which they respectively claim and exercise, of the collisions which have occurred between them or between the whole Government and those of the States or either of them. 现行政府形式采用至今已逾半个世纪。若能准确查明它目前的状况，公正展示各部门的运作、各自声称并行使的权力，以及部门之间、整个政府与各州或其中任何一州之间发生的冲突，其价值将远超满足思辨政治家的好奇心。
We could then compare our actual condition after fifty years' trial of our system with what it was in the commencement of its operations and ascertain whether the predictions of the patriots who opposed its adoption or the confident hopes of its advocates have been best realized. 我们便能把制度运行五十年后的实际状况同起步时相比，看看当年反对采用宪法的爱国者所作预言，还是拥护者满怀信心的希望，更接近现实。
The great dread of the former seems to have been that the reserved powers of the States would be absorbed by those of the Federal Government and a consolidated power established, leaving to the States the shadow only of that independent action for which they had so zealously contended and on the preservation of which they relied as the last hope of liberty. Without denying that the result to which they looked with so much apprehension is in the way of being realized, it is obvious that they did not clearly see the mode of its accomplishment. 反对者最担心的，似乎是各州保留权力会被联邦政府吸收，形成一个集权政府，只给各州留下他们曾热烈争取的独立行动的影子；而他们把保存这种独立行动视为自由的最后希望。我不否认他们深感忧虑的结果正在趋于实现，但他们显然没有看清它将以何种方式实现。
The General Government has seized upon none of the reserved rights of the States. As far as any open warfare may have gone, the State authorities have amply maintained their rights. To a casual observer our system presents no appearance of discord between the different members which compose it. Even the addition of many new ones has produced no jarring. They move in their respective orbits in perfect harmony with the central head and with each other. 联邦政府并未夺取各州任何保留权利。就公开冲突而言，州当局充分维护了自身权利。在偶然观察者看来，我国制度的各组成部分之间并无不和；即使加入许多新成员，也没有造成摩擦。它们各自沿着轨道运行，同中央以及彼此保持完全和谐。
But there is still an undercurrent at work by which, if not seasonably checked, the worst apprehensions of our antifederal patriots will be realized, and not only will the State authorities be overshadowed by the great increase of power in the executive department of the General Government, but the character of that Government, if not its designation, be essentially and radically changed. This state of things has been in part effected by causes inherent in the Constitution and in part by the never-failing tendency of political power to increase itself. 然而，一股暗流仍在涌动；若不及时制止，我国反联邦派爱国者最坏的忧虑便会成为现实：各州权力不仅会被联邦政府行政部门大幅增长的权力遮蔽，政府的性质即使名称不变，也会发生根本而彻底的改变。这种局面一部分源于宪法固有原因，一部分源于政治权力必然自我扩张的倾向。
By making the President the sole distributer of all the patronage of the Government the framers of the Constitution do not appear to have anticipated at how short a period it would become a formidable instrument to control the free operations of the State governments. Of trifling importance at first, it had early in Mr. Jefferson's Administration become so powerful as to create great alarm in the mind of that patriot from the potent influence it might exert in controlling the freedom of the elective franchise. 制宪者把政府所有恩遇职位的分配权交给总统一人时，似乎没有预料到，它会在如此短时间内变成控制州政府自由运作的强大工具。这种权力起初微不足道，但早在杰斐逊政府时期便已强大到令这位爱国者深感警惕，因为它可能对选举权的自由行使产生巨大控制力。
If such could have then been the effects of its influence, how much greater must be the danger at this time, quadrupled in amount as it certainly is and more completely under the control of the Executive will than their construction of their powers allowed or the forbearing characters of all the early Presidents permitted them to make. But it is not by the extent of its patronage alone that the executive department has become dangerous, but by the use which it appears may be made of the appointing power to bring under its control the whole revenues of the country. 既然当时它的影响尚能产生如此后果，那么到了今天，其数量确已增至四倍，而且受行政意志控制的程度，已经超过早期总统对自身权力的理解以及他们克制的品格所允许的范围，危险岂不更大？行政部门的危险不只来自恩遇职位的规模，也来自任命权似乎可以被用来把全国财政收入置于其控制之下。
The Constitution has declared it to be the duty of the President to see that the laws are executed, and it makes him the Commander in Chief of the Armies and Navy of the United States. If the opinion of the most approved writers upon that species of mixed government which in modern Europe is termed 'monarchy' in contradistinction to 'despotism' is correct, there was wanting no other addition to the powers of our Chief Magistrate to stamp a monarchical character on our Government but the control of the public finances; 宪法规定，总统有责任确保法律得到执行，并规定他担任合众国陆海军总司令。如果现代欧洲称为“君主制”、用以区别于“专制制度”的那种混合政府方面最受推崇的论者观点正确，那么要使我国最高行政长官的权力带上君主制色彩，只差再让他控制公共财政；
and to me it appears strange indeed that anyone should doubt that the entire control which the President possesses over the officers who have the custody of the public money, by the power of removal with or without cause, does, for all mischievous purposes at least, virtually subject the treasure also to his disposal. The first Roman Emperor, in his attempt to seize the sacred treasure, silenced the opposition of the officer to whose charge it had been committed by a significant allusion to his sword. 在我看来，竟有人怀疑总统凭借有因或无因撤职的权力，完全控制着保管公款的官员，从而至少可以为一切有害目的事实上支配国库，实在令人诧异。第一位罗马皇帝企图夺取圣库时，以意味深长的方式提到自己的佩剑，便压服了负责守库官员的反对。
By a selection of political instruments for the care of the public money a reference to their commissions by a President would be quite as effectual an argument as that of Caesar to the Roman knight. I am not insensible of the great difficulty that exists in drawing a proper plan for the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public revenues, and I know the importance which has been attached by men of great abilities and patriotism to the divorce, as it is called, of the Treasury from the banking institutions. 若挑选政治工具来保管公款，总统只须向他们提及委任状，其说服力就会同凯撒对那位罗马骑士的论据一样有效。我并非不知制定妥善方案以安全保管和支付公共收入有多么困难，也知道许多才智卓越、富有爱国心的人多么重视所谓财政部与银行机构“脱离关系”。
It is not the divorce which is complained of, but the unhallowed union of the Treasury with the executive department, which has created such extensive alarm. To this danger to our republican institutions and that created by the influence given to the Executive through the instrumentality of the Federal officers I propose to apply all the remedies which may be at my command. It was certainly a great error in the framers of the Constitution not to have made the officer at the head of the Treasury Department entirely independent of the Executive. 人们抱怨的并非这种脱离，而是财政部与行政部门之间不正当的结合；正是它引起了广泛警惕。对于这种危及共和制度的危险，以及行政部门借助联邦官员获得影响力而造成的危险，我打算运用一切力所能及的补救办法。制宪者没有使财政部长完全独立于行政部门，无疑是重大错误。
He should at least have been removable only upon the demand of the popular branch of the Legislature. I have determined never to remove a Secretary of the Treasury without communicating all the circumstances attending such removal to both Houses of Congress. 至少，只有立法机关的民选一院提出要求时，财政部长才应被免职。我已决定，今后绝不在未向国会两院说明免职全部情形的情况下撤换财政部长。
The influence of the Executive in controlling the freedom of the elective franchise through the medium of the public officers can be effectually checked by renewing the prohibition published by Mr. Jefferson forbidding their interference in elections further than giving their own votes, and their own independence secured by an assurance of perfect immunity in exercising this sacred privilege of freemen under the dictates of their own unbiased judgments. 行政部门利用公职人员影响选举权自由的问题，可以通过恢复杰斐逊先生公布的禁令来有效遏制：禁止公职人员干预选举，除非只是投出自己的选票；同时保证他们依照不受偏见左右的判断行使这项自由人的神圣权利时完全不受追究，从而保障其独立。
Never with my consent shall an officer of the people, compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the pliant instrument of Executive will. 在我任内，任何由人民出钱供养的公职人员，都绝不能沦为行政意志的驯服工具。
There is no part of the means placed in the hands of the Executive which might be used with greater effect for unhallowed purposes than the control of the public press. The maxim which our ancestors derived from the mother country that "the freedom of the press is the great bulwark of civil and religious liberty" is one of the most precious legacies which they have left us. We have learned, too, from our own as well as the experience of other countries, that golden shackles, by whomsoever or by whatever pretense imposed, are as fatal to it as the iron bonds of despotism. 行政部门掌握的各种手段中，没有哪一种比控制公共报刊更容易被用于不正当目的。先辈从母国继承的格言——“新闻自由是公民自由和宗教自由的伟大堡垒”——是他们留给我们的最珍贵遗产之一。我们从自己和别国的经验中也明白，无论是谁、借何种名义加上的金锁链，对新闻自由都同专制的铁镣一样致命。
The presses in the necessary employment of the Government should never be used "to clear the guilty or to varnish crime." A decent and manly examination of the acts of the Government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged. 政府因公务需要而雇用的报刊或印刷机构，绝不能被用来“为有罪者开脱或粉饰罪行”。对政府行为所作的庄重、坦率审查，不仅应得到容忍，还应受到鼓励。
Upon another occasion I have given my opinion at some length upon the impropriety of Executive interference in the legislation of Congress--that the article in the Constitution making it the duty of the President to communicate information and authorizing him to recommend measures was not intended to make him the source in legislation, and, in particular, that he should never be looked to for schemes of finance. 我曾在另一个场合较为详细地阐述过行政部门不应干预国会立法的观点：宪法要求总统通报情况并授权他建议措施的条款，并非要让总统成为立法的源头；尤其不应把总统视为财政方案的提出者。
It would be very strange, indeed, that the Constitution should have strictly forbidden one branch of the Legislature from interfering in the origination of such bills and that it should be considered proper that an altogether different department of the Government should be permitted to do so. Some of our best political maxims and opinions have been drawn from our parent isle. There are others, however, which can not be introduced in our system without singular incongruity and the production of much mischief, and this I conceive to be one. 宪法严格禁止立法机关的一个分支干预这类法案的发起，却又认为应允许政府中一个完全不同的部门这样做，确实十分奇怪。我国一些最优秀的政治格言和见解取自母国英国；但也有一些东西若引入我国制度，只会造成极不协调的局面和严重危害，我认为这便是一例。
No matter in which of the houses of Parliament a bill may originate nor by whom introduced--a minister or a member of the opposition--by the fiction of law, or rather of constitutional principle, the sovereign is supposed to have prepared it agreeably to his will and then submitted it to Parliament for their advice and consent. Now the very reverse is the case here, not only with regard to the principle, but the forms prescribed by the Constitution. 在英国，无论法案源自议会哪一院，也无论由大臣还是反对派议员提出，按照法律拟制，更确切地说按照宪法原则，都假定法案是君主依其意志拟定，再提交议会征求意见并取得同意。而在我国，无论原则还是宪法规定的形式，情况都恰好相反。
The principle certainly assigns to the only body constituted by the Constitution (the legislative body) the power to make laws, and the forms even direct that the enactment should be ascribed to them. The Senate, in relation to revenue bills, have the right to propose amendments, and so has the Executive by the power given him to return them to the House of Representatives with his objections. It is in his power also to propose amendments in the existing revenue laws, suggested by his observations upon their defective or injurious operation. 这项原则明确把制定法律的权力赋予宪法设立的唯一立法机构；甚至法定形式也要求把立法行为归于该机构。参议院有权对税收法案提出修正，总统也可凭借将法案连同异议退回众议院的权力发挥类似作用。总统还可以根据自己对现行税收法律缺陷或有害效果的观察，建议对其加以修正。
But the delicate duty of devising schemes of revenue should be left where the Constitution has placed it--with the immediate representatives of the people. For similar reasons the mode of keeping the public treasure should be prescribed by them, and the further removed it may be from the control of the Executive the more wholesome the arrangement and the more in accordance with republican principle. 但是，设计财政收入方案这项微妙职责，应当留在宪法安排的地方，也就是人民的直接代表手中。基于同样理由，国库公款的保管方式也应由他们规定；公款保管越能远离行政部门的控制，这种安排就越稳妥，也越符合共和原则。
Connected with this subject is the character of the currency. The idea of making it exclusively metallic, however well intended, appears to me to be fraught with more fatal consequences than any other scheme having no relation to the personal rights of the citizens that has ever been devised. If any single scheme could produce the effect of arresting at once that mutation of condition by which thousands of our most indigent fellow-citizens by their industry and enterprise are raised to the possession of wealth, that is the one. 与此相关的是货币性质问题。建立纯金属货币制度的想法，尽管出于善意，在我看来却比以往任何不涉及公民人身权利的方案都更可能造成致命后果。如果说有一种方案能立刻阻断那种社会地位的变化，使成千上万最贫困的同胞无法凭勤劳与进取获得财富，那便是这种制度。
If there is one measure better calculated than another to produce that state of things so much deprecated by all true republicans, by which the rich are daily adding to their hoards and the poor sinking deeper into penury, it is an exclusive metallic currency. Or if there is a process by which the character of the country for generosity and nobleness of feeling may be destroyed by the great increase and neck toleration of usury, it is an exclusive metallic currency. 如果说有一种措施最容易造成一切真正共和派都深恶痛绝的局面，让富者日益积聚财富、穷者越陷越深，那就是纯金属货币制度。如果说有一种过程会因高利贷大幅增加并不得不受到容忍，而毁掉国家慷慨高尚的品格，那也是纯金属货币制度。
Amongst the other duties of a delicate character which the President is called upon to perform is the supervision of the government of the Territories of the United States. Those of them which are destined to become members of our great political family are compensated by their rapid progress from infancy to manhood for the partial and temporary deprivation of their political rights. It is in this District only where American citizens are to be found who under a settled policy are deprived of many important political privileges without any inspiring hope as to the future. 总统受命履行的其他微妙职责之一，是监督合众国各领地的治理。那些注定成为我国政治大家庭成员的领地，虽然暂时且部分丧失政治权利，却能以从幼年迅速成长至成年的进程得到补偿。只有在这个特区，才有美国公民在既定政策下被剥夺许多重要政治权利，而且看不到未来改善处境的希望。
Their only consolation under circumstances of such deprivation is that of the devoted exterior guards of a camp--that their sufferings secure tranquillity and safety within. Are there any of their countrymen, who would subject them to greater sacrifices, to any other humiliations than those essentially necessary to the security of the object for which they were thus separated from their fellow-citizens? Are their rights alone not to be guaranteed by the application of those great principles upon which all our constitutions are founded? 在这种被剥夺的处境下，他们唯一的安慰，就像营地外围忠诚的哨兵一样：自身承受的牺牲保障了营内的安宁与安全。难道有同胞愿意让他们作出更大牺牲，承受超出保障设立特区之目的所必需的其他屈辱吗？难道只有他们的权利不能得到那些作为我国一切宪法基础的伟大原则保障吗？
We are told by the greatest of British orators and statesmen that at the commencement of the War of the Revolution the most stupid men in England spoke of "their American subjects." Are there, indeed, citizens of any of our States who have dreamed 'of their subjects' in the District of Columbia? Such dreams can never be realized by any agency of mine. The people of the District of Columbia are not the subjects of the people of the States, but free American citizens. 英国最伟大的演说家和政治家告诉我们，独立战争开始时，英格兰最愚钝的人还在谈论“他们的美国臣民”。难道我国某些州真有公民幻想自己在哥伦比亚特区拥有“臣民”吗？任何经由我的行动都不会使这种幻想成真。哥伦比亚特区人民不是各州人民的臣民，而是自由的美国公民。
Being in the latter condition when the Constitution was formed, no words used in that instrument could have been intended to deprive them of that character. If there is anything in the great principle of unalienable rights so emphatically insisted upon in our Declaration of Independence, they could neither make nor the United States accept a surrender of their liberties and become the 'subjects'--in other words, the slaves--of their former fellow-citizens. 宪法制定时，他们已经是自由公民，因此宪法中的任何措辞都不可能意在剥夺他们的这种身份。若《独立宣言》所强调的不可让渡权利这一伟大原则确有意义，他们便既不能交出自由、成为昔日同胞的“臣民”——换言之，奴隶——合众国也不能接受这种放弃。
If this be true--and it will scarcely be denied by anyone who has a correct idea of his own rights as an American citizen--the grant to Congress of exclusive jurisdiction in the District of Columbia can be interpreted, so far as respects the aggregate people of the United States, as meaning nothing more than to allow to Congress the controlling power necessary to afford a free and safe exercise of the functions assigned to the General Government by the Constitution. 如果这是真的——凡正确理解自身美国公民权利的人几乎都不会否认——那么，就全体合众国人民而言，赋予国会对哥伦比亚特区专属管辖权的规定，只能理解为允许国会行使必要的控制权，以保障联邦政府能够自由、安全地履行宪法赋予的职能。
In all other respects the legislation of Congress should be adapted to their peculiar position and wants and be conformable with their deliberate opinions of their own interests. 在其他一切方面，国会针对特区的立法都应适应当地的特殊处境和需要，并符合特区人民经过深思熟虑后对自身利益的判断。
I have spoken of the necessity of keeping the respective departments of the Government, as well as all the other authorities of our country, within their appropriate orbits. This is a matter of difficulty in some cases, as the powers which they respectively claim are often not defined by any distinct lines. 我已经谈到，政府各部门以及我国所有其他权力机关，都必须维持在各自适当轨道内。有时做到这一点很困难，因为它们各自主张的权力往往没有清晰界线。
Mischievous, however, in their tendencies as collisions of this kind may be, those which arise between the respective communities which for certain purposes compose one nation are much more so, for no such nation can long exist without the careful culture of those feelings of confidence and affection which are the effective bonds to union between free and confederated states. Strong as is the tie of interest, it has been often found ineffectual. Men blinded by their passions have been known to adopt measures for their country in direct opposition to all the suggestions of policy. 这类冲突的倾向虽有害，但那些为特定目的组成一个国家的各共同体之间发生的冲突危害更大；因为自由而结盟的各州若不悉心培育信任和友爱之情这一联合的有效纽带，任何国家都无法长久存在。利益纽带虽强，却常被证明无效。被激情蒙蔽的人，曾为国家采取同一切政策考量完全相反的措施。
The alternative, then, is to destroy or keep down a bad passion by creating and fostering a good one, and this seems to be the corner stone upon which our American political architects have reared the fabric of our Government. The cement which was to bind it and perpetuate its existence was the affectionate attachment between all its members. To insure the continuance of this feeling, produced at first by a community of dangers, of sufferings, and of interests, the advantages of each were made accessible to all. 因此，唯一选择就是创造并培育一种良好情感，以消除或压制不良激情；这似乎正是我国政治设计者构筑政府大厦的基石。把它凝聚在一起并使其长存的黏合剂，是所有成员之间充满感情的依恋。为了延续这种最初由共同危险、苦难和利益产生的情感，每一成员享有的利益都向所有成员开放。
No participation in any good possessed by any member of our extensive Confederacy, except in domestic government, was withheld from the citizen of any other member. By a process attended with no difficulty, no delay, no expense but that of removal, the citizen of one might become the citizen of any other, and successively of the whole. The lines, too, separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one State from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave no room for misunderstanding. 除各自内部治理外，广阔邦联中任何成员享有的利益，都不对其他成员的公民封闭。一个州的公民只须迁移，无须困难、拖延或额外费用，便可成为任何另一州的公民，并依次成为所有州的公民。各州公民分别行使权力的界线也划得十分清楚，不应留下误解余地。
The citizens of each State unite in their persons all the privileges which that character confers and all that they may claim as citizens of the United States, but in no case can the same persons at the same time act as the citizen of two separate States, and 'he is therefore positively precluded from any interference with the reserved powers of any State but that of which he is for the time being a citizen'. He may, indeed, offer to the citizens of other States his advice as to their management, and the form in which it is tendered is left to his own discretion and sense of propriety. 每州公民集于一身的，既有该州公民身份赋予的一切特权，也有作为合众国公民可主张的一切权利；但同一个人绝不可能同时以两个不同州公民的身份行事，因此，他不得干预自己当时所属州以外任何州的保留权力。当然，他可以向其他州公民提出治理建议，采用何种形式则由他自己的判断和分寸感决定。
It may be observed, however, that organized associations of citizens requiring compliance with their wishes too much resemble the 'recommendations' of Athens to her allies, supported by an armed and powerful fleet. It was, indeed, to the ambition of the leading States of Greece to control the domestic concerns of the others that the destruction of that celebrated Confederacy, and subsequently of all its members, is mainly to be attributed, and it is owing to the absence of that spirit that the Helvetic Confederacy has for so many years been preserved. 不过，由公民组成团体，要求他人服从其意愿，太像雅典人在强大武装舰队支持下向盟邦提出的“建议”。正是希腊各领导城邦企图控制其他城邦内部事务的野心，主要导致那个著名同盟以及后来所有成员的毁灭；而瑞士邦联得以保存多年，正因为没有这种精神。
Never has there been seen in the institutions of the separate members of any confederacy more elements of discord. In the principles and forms of government and religion, as well as in the circumstances of the several Cantons, so marked a discrepancy was observable as to promise anything but harmony in their intercourse or permanency in their alliance, and yet for ages neither has been interrupted. 从未有任何邦联的各成员制度包含过更多不和因素。各州无论政府原则和形式、宗教，还是具体环境，都存在显著差异，怎么看都不像会交往和谐、联盟长久；然而几个世纪以来，两者都未中断。
Content with the positive benefits which their union produced, with the independence and safety from foreign aggression which it secured, these sagacious people respected the institutions of each other, however repugnant to their own principles and prejudices. 这些明智的人民满足于联合带来的实际利益，满足于联合保障的独立和免受外来侵略的安全；即使彼此制度同自己的原则和偏见多么抵触，他们仍相互尊重。
Our Confederacy, fellow-citizens, can only be preserved by the same forbearance. Our citizens must be content with the exercise of the powers with which the Constitution clothes them. The attempt of those of one State to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy, the certain harbingers of disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction of our free institutions. Our Confederacy is perfectly illustrated by the terms and principles governing a common copartnership. 同胞们，我国邦联也只能靠同样的克制来保存。公民必须满足于行使宪法赋予自己的权力。一州人民企图控制另一州内部制度，只会引发猜疑和嫉妒；这必然预示分裂、暴力和内战，并最终摧毁我们的自由制度。共同合伙关系的条款和原则，最能说明我国邦联。
There is a fund of power to be exercised under the direction of the joint councils of the allied members, but that which has been reserved by the individual members is intangible by the common Government or the individual members composing it. To attempt it finds no support in the principles of our Constitution. 有一部分共同权力由结盟各成员的联合议事机构指导行使；但各成员自行保留的权力，无论共同政府还是组成它的其他成员都不得触碰。任何这种企图都得不到我国宪法原则的支持。
It should be our constant and earnest endeavor mutually to cultivate a spirit of concord and harmony among the various parts of our Confederacy. Experience has abundantly taught us that the agitation by citizens of one part of the Union of a subject not confided to the General Government, but exclusively under the guardianship of the local authorities, is productive of no other consequences than bitterness, alienation, discord, and injury to the very cause which is intended to be advanced. 我们应当始终真诚努力，在邦联各部分之间共同培育和睦融洽的精神。经验充分告诉我们，联邦一地公民鼓动或炒作一个不属联邦政府权限、而完全由地方当局管辖的议题，只会造成怨恨、疏离、不和，并伤害原本想要推进的事业。
Of all the great interests which appertain to our country, that of union--cordial, confiding, fraternal union--is by far the most important, since it is the only true and sure guaranty of all others. 在属于我国的一切重大利益中，联合——真诚、互信、兄弟般的联合——远为最重要，因为它是其他一切利益唯一真实可靠的保障。
In consequence of the embarrassed state of business and the currency, some of the States may meet with difficulty in their financial concerns. However deeply we may regret anything imprudent or excessive in the engagements into which States have entered for purposes of their own, it does not become us to disparage the States governments, nor to discourage them from making proper efforts for their own relief. 由于商业和货币状况困窘，一些州可能在财政事务中遇到困难。无论我们多么遗憾某些州为自身目的作出不审慎或过度的承诺，也不应贬损州政府，更不应阻止它们为自救作出适当努力。
On the contrary, it is our duty to encourage them to the extent of our constitutional authority to apply their best means and cheerfully to make all necessary sacrifices and submit to all necessary burdens to fulfill their engagements and maintain their credit, for the character and credit of the several States form a part of the character and credit of the whole country. 相反，我们有责任在宪法权限内鼓励各州运用最佳手段，欣然作出一切必要牺牲、承担一切必要负担，以履行承诺、维护信用；因为各州的声誉和信用，构成整个国家声誉和信用的一部分。
The resources of the country are abundant, the enterprise and activity of our people proverbial, and we may well hope that wise legislation and prudent administration by the respective governments, each acting within its own sphere, will restore former prosperity. 国家资源丰富，人民的进取和活力举世闻名；我们完全有理由希望，各级政府各守其位，通过明智立法和审慎行政，恢复往日繁荣。
Unpleasant and even dangerous as collisions may sometimes be between the constituted authorities of the citizens of our country in relation to the lines which separate their respective jurisdictions, the results can be of no vital injury to our institutions if that ardent patriotism, that devoted attachment to liberty, that spirit of moderation and forbearance for which our countrymen were once distinguished, continue to be cherished. 我国公民依法设立的各权力机关，可能会就彼此管辖权的分界发生冲突；这类冲突虽令人不快，有时甚至危险，但只要同胞们继续珍视他们曾经以之著称的热烈爱国心、对自由的忠诚以及温和克制的精神，结果就不会对我国制度造成致命伤害。
If this continues to be the ruling passion of our souls, the weaker feeling of the mistaken enthusiast will be corrected, the Utopian dreams of the scheming politician dissipated, and the complicated intrigues of the demagogue rendered harmless. The spirit of liberty is the sovereign balm for every injury which our institutions may receive. 如果这种精神继续支配我们的心灵，误入歧途的狂热冲动将受到纠正，投机政客的乌托邦梦想将会消散，煽动家的复杂阴谋也会失去危害。自由精神是治愈我国制度所受一切损伤的至尊良药。
On the contrary, no care that can be used in the construction of our Government, no division of powers, no distribution of checks in its several departments, will prove effectual to keep us a free people if this spirit is suffered to decay; and decay it will without constant nurture. To the neglect of this duty the best historians agree in attributing the ruin of all the republics with whose existence and fall their writings have made us acquainted. 相反，如果这种精神任其衰败，那么无论构建政府时多么谨慎，无论怎样划分权力、在各部门分设制衡，都不能有效维持我们的自由；而若不不断培育，这种精神必会衰败。最优秀的历史学家一致认为，他们笔下所有共和国的毁灭，都可归因于忽视了这项责任。
The same causes will ever produce the same effects, and as long as the love of power is a dominant passion of the human bosom, and as long as the understandings of men can be warped and their affections changed by operations upon their passions and prejudices, so long will the liberties of a people depend on their own constant attention to its preservation. 同样的原因永远会产生同样的结果。只要权力欲仍是人心中的主导激情，只要人的理解仍会被操纵激情和偏见的手段扭曲、感情仍会因此改变，人民的自由就始终有赖于他们自己不断加以维护。
The danger to all well-established free governments arises from the unwillingness of the people to believe in its existence or from the influence of designing men diverting their attention from the quarter whence it approaches to a source from which it can never come. This is the old trick of those who would usurp the government of their country. In the name of democracy they speak, warning the people against the influence of wealth and the danger of aristocracy. History, ancient and modern, is full of such examples. 一切基础稳固的自由政府所面临的危险，都源于人民不愿相信危险存在，或别有用心者把人民的注意力从危险真正逼近的方向引向根本不会出现危险的来源。这是那些企图篡夺本国政府者惯用的老把戏。他们以民主之名发言，警告人民防范财富的影响和贵族制的危险。古今历史充满这类事例。
Caesar became the master of the Roman people and the senate under the pretense of supporting the democratic claims of the former against the aristocracy of the latter; Cromwell, in the character of protector of the liberties of the people, became the dictator of England, and Bolivar possessed himself of unlimited power with the title of his country's liberator. There is, on the contrary, no instance on record of an extensive and well-established republic being changed into an aristocracy. 凯撒借口支持罗马人民对抗元老院贵族的民主诉求，成为人民和元老院的主人；克伦威尔以人民自由保护者的身份成为英格兰独裁者；玻利瓦尔则以祖国解放者的头衔攫取无限权力。相反，历史上从未有幅员辽阔、根基稳固的共和国转变为贵族制的先例。
The tendencies of all such governments in their decline is to monarchy, and the antagonist principle to liberty there is the spirit of faction--a spirit which assumes the character and in times of great excitement imposes itself upon the people as the genuine spirit of freedom, and, like the false Christs whose coming was foretold by the Savior, seeks to, and were it possible would, impose upon the true and most faithful disciples of liberty. It is in periods like this that it behooves the people to be most watchful of those to whom they have intrusted power. 所有这类政府在衰落时都趋向君主制；在那里，与自由对立的原则是党争精神。它具有某种表象，在剧烈动荡时期会冒充真正的自由精神欺骗人民；它就像救世主预言会出现的假基督，企图欺骗真正而最忠诚的自由信徒，若有可能便真会得逞。正是在这样的时期，人民最应警惕受托掌权者。
And although there is at times much difficulty in distinguishing the false from the true spirit, a calm and dispassionate investigation will detect the counterfeit, as well by the character of its operations as the results that are produced. 尽管有时很难区分虚假的自由精神和真正的自由精神，但冷静而不带成见的考察，既可从它的运作方式，也可从产生的结果识破赝品。
The true spirit of liberty, although devoted, persevering, bold, and uncompromising in principle, that secured is mild and tolerant and scrupulous as to the means it employs, whilst the spirit of party, assuming to be that of liberty, is harsh, vindictive, and intolerant, and totally reckless as to the character of the allies which it brings to the aid of its cause. 真正的自由精神忠诚、坚韧、勇敢，在原则上毫不妥协；但原则一旦得到保障，它便温和宽容，并对所用手段极为谨慎。党派精神却冒充自由精神，苛刻、报复、不容异己，对拉来助阵的盟友具有何种品格则全不在意。
When the genuine spirit of liberty animates the body of a people to a thorough examination of their affairs, it leads to the excision of every excrescence which may have fastened itself upon any of the departments of the government, and restores the system to its pristine health and beauty. But the reign of an intolerant spirit of party amongst a free people seldom fails to result in a dangerous accession to the executive power introduced and established amidst unusual professions of devotion to democracy. 当真正的自由精神鼓舞全体人民彻底审查自身事务时，它会切除附着于任何政府部门的一切赘生物，使制度恢复原初的健康与美好。然而，在自由人民中盛行不容异己的党派精神，几乎总会造成行政权危险扩张，而且这种扩张往往在异常高调宣称忠于民主的声浪中被引入并确立。
The foregoing remarks relate almost exclusively to matters connected with our domestic concerns. It may be proper, however, that I should give some indications to my fellow-citizens of my proposed course of conduct in the management of our foreign relations. I assure them, therefore, that it is my intention to use every means in my power to preserve the friendly intercourse which now so happily subsists with every foreign nation. 以上论述几乎全部涉及国内事务。不过，我或许也应向同胞们略作说明，自己准备如何处理外交关系。因此，我向他们保证，我打算运用力所能及的一切手段，维持目前同每个外国都愉快保持的友好交往。
Although, of course, not well informed as to the state of pending negotiations with any of them, I see in the personal characters of the sovereigns, as well as in the mutual interests of our own and of the governments with which our relations are most intimate, a pleasing guaranty that the harmony so important to the interests of their subjects as well as of our citizens will not be interrupted by the advancement of any claim or pretension upon their part to which our honor would not permit us to yield. 当然，我目前尚不了解同各国进行中的谈判状况；但从各国君主的个人品格，以及我国与关系最密切各国政府的共同利益中，我看到了令人欣慰的保障：这种和谐对它们的臣民和我国公民都十分重要，不会因为对方提出我国荣誉不容接受的任何主张或要求而中断。
Long the defender of my country's rights in the field, I trust that my fellow-citizens will not see in my earnest desire to preserve peace with foreign powers any indication that their rights will ever be sacrificed or the honor of the nation tarnished by any admission on the part of their Chief Magistrate unworthy of their former glory. 我长期在战场上捍卫祖国权利；我相信，同胞们不会把我维护同外国和平的真诚愿望，视为我可能牺牲他们权利的迹象，也不会认为国家最高行政长官会作出有损往日荣光的让步，使国家荣誉蒙尘。
In our intercourse with our aboriginal neighbors the same liberality and justice which marked the course prescribed to me by two of my illustrious predecessors when acting under their direction in the discharge of the duties of superintendent and commissioner shall be strictly observed. I can conceive of no more sublime spectacle, none more likely to propitiate an impartial and common Creator, than a rigid adherence to the principles of justice on the part of a powerful nation in its transactions with a weaker and uncivilized people whom circumstances have placed at its disposal. 在同原住民近邻交往时，我将严格遵循两位杰出前任在我奉其命令担任总监和专员时所规定的宽厚与公正方针。我想象不出比这更崇高、也更能赢得公正而共同的造物主嘉许的景象：一个强大国家在处理同一个因环境而受其支配、较弱且未开化民族的关系时，严格恪守正义原则。
Before concluding, fellow-citizens, I must say something to you on the subject of the parties at this time existing in our country. To me it appears perfectly clear that the interest of that country requires that the violence of the spirit by which those parties are at this time governed must be greatly mitigated, if not entirely extinguished, or consequences will ensue which are appalling to be thought of. 同胞们，在结束以前，我必须谈谈目前存在于我国的各政党。在我看来，国家利益显然要求大幅缓和、甚至完全消除当前支配这些政党的激烈党争精神，否则后果将不堪设想。
If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends. Beyond that they become destructive of public virtue, the parent of a spirit antagonist to that of liberty, and eventually its inevitable conqueror. 如果共和国需要政党来维持足够警觉，确保公职人员遵守法律和职责，那么政党的作用到此为止。越过这条界线，它们就会摧毁公共美德，孕育同自由敌对的精神，并最终不可避免地战胜自由。
We have examples of republics where the love of country and of liberty at one time were the dominant passions of the whole mass of citizens, and yet, with the continuance of the name and forms of free government, not a vestige of these qualities remaining in the bosoms of any one of its citizens. It was the beautiful remark of a distinguished English writer that "in the Roman senate Octavius had a party and Anthony a party, but the Commonwealth had none." 我们见过这样的共和国：爱国与热爱自由一度是全体公民的主导激情；后来，虽仍保留自由政府的名称和形式，任何公民心中却不再留有这些品质的丝毫痕迹。一位杰出英国作家有句精彩评论：“在罗马元老院里，屋大维有自己的党，安东尼有自己的党，但共和国没有自己的党。”
Yet the senate continued to meet in the temple of liberty to talk of the sacredness and beauty of the Commonwealth and gaze at the statues of the elder Brutus and of the Curtii and Decii, and the people assembled in the forum, not, as in the days of Camillus and the Scipios, to cast their free votes for annual magistrates or pass upon the acts of the senate, but to receive from the hands of the leaders of the respective parties their share of the spoils and to shout for one or the other, as those collected in Gaul or Egypt and the lesser Asia would furnish the larger dividend. 元老院仍在自由神庙中开会，谈论共和国的神圣与美好，凝望老布鲁图斯、库尔提乌斯家族和德基乌斯家族的雕像；人民也仍聚集在广场上，却不像卡米卢斯和西庇阿家族时代那样，自由投票选举年度官员或裁定元老院的行为，而是从各党领袖手中领取自己的一份战利品，并为其中一方呐喊，看哪一方从高卢、埃及和小亚细亚搜刮来的财富能分给他们更多红利。
The spirit of liberty had fled, and, avoiding the abodes of civilized man, had sought protection in the wilds of Scythia or Scandinavia; and so under the operation of the same causes and influences it will fly from our Capitol and our forums. A calamity so awful, not only to our country, but to the world, must be deprecated by every patriot and every tendency to a state of things likely to produce it immediately checked. Such a tendency has existed--does exist. 自由精神已经逃走；它躲开文明人的居所，到斯基泰或斯堪的纳维亚的荒野寻求庇护。在同样原因和影响作用下，它也会飞离我们的国会大厦和公共论坛。如此灾难不仅对我国、也对世界极为可怕，每位爱国者都必须祈愿它不要发生，并立即制止一切可能导致这种局面的趋势。这种趋势过去存在，现在仍然存在。
Always the friend of my countrymen, never their flatterer, it becomes my duty to say to them from this high place to which their partiality has exalted me that there exists in the land a spirit hostile to their best interests--hostile to liberty itself. It is a spirit contracted in its views, selfish in its objects. It looks to the aggrandizement of a few even to the destruction of the interests of the whole. The entire remedy is with the people. Something, however, may be effected by the means which they have placed in my hands. 我一向是同胞的朋友，却从不是他们的谄媚者。既然他们的厚爱把我提升到这个高位，我有责任在这里告诉他们：国内存在一种敌视他们最大利益、甚至敌视自由本身的精神。它眼界狭窄，目的自私；它追求少数人权势的扩张，哪怕以摧毁整体利益为代价。彻底补救之道掌握在人民手中，不过，他们交给我的手段也能发挥一些作用。
It is union that we want, not of a party for the sake of that party, but a union of the whole country for the sake of the whole country, for the defense of its interests and its honor against foreign aggression, for the defense of those principles for which our ancestors so gloriously contended. As far as it depends upon me it shall be accomplished. All the influence that I possess shall be exerted to prevent the formation at least of an Executive party in the halls of the legislative body. 我们需要的是团结，不是为了某个政党而结成的党派团结，而是为了整个国家而实现的全国团结；团结起来捍卫国家利益和荣誉，抵御外国侵略，并捍卫先辈曾为之光荣奋斗的原则。凡取决于我的部分，我都会促成这种团结。我拥有的一切影响力，都将用于至少阻止在立法机关大厅内形成一个行政派党。
I wish for the support of no member of that body to any measure of mine that does not satisfy his judgment and his sense of duty to those from whom he holds his appointment, nor any confidence in advance from the people but that asked for by Mr. Jefferson, "to give firmness and effect to the legal administration of their affairs." 我不希望立法机关任何成员支持我的某项措施，除非该措施符合他的判断，也符合他对授予其职位的人民和选民所负的责任；我也不要求人民预先给我任何信任，只请求杰斐逊先生所请求的那种信任：“使他们事务的合法治理获得坚定和实效。”
I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness; 我认为眼下场合足够重大而庄严，足以让我向同胞表达对基督教的深切敬意，并表达我的坚定信念：健全道德、宗教自由以及对宗教责任的正确认识，同一切真实而长久的幸福有着根本联系；
and to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time. 那位仁慈的上苍赐予我们公民自由和宗教自由，照看并成就先辈的事业，迄今为我们保存了远胜其他民族的制度。让我们热诚地共同把亲爱祖国未来世代的一切利益托付给他。
Fellow-citizens, being fully invested with that high office to which the partiality of my countrymen has called me, I now take an affectionate leave of you. You will bear with you to your homes the remembrance of the pledge I have this day given to discharge all the high duties of my exalted station according to the best of my ability, and I shall enter upon their performance with entire confidence in the support of a just and generous people. 同胞们，既然我已完全就任这个由同胞厚爱所召唤的崇高职位，现在便怀着深情向你们告别。你们回到家乡时，会记得我今天作出的誓言：竭尽所能履行崇高职位的一切重大职责；而我也将怀着完全的信心开始履职，相信自己会得到公正而宽宏的人民支持。