林肯第二次就职演讲

1 / 13 林肯第二次就职演讲 在我现在第二次来到这里宣誓就任总统职位的时候，就不十分必要像第一次就职时那样作长篇演说了。那时，一篇关于我将采取的方针的比较详尽的说明，似乎是比较合适和理所当然 的。可是现在，四年任期刚刚结束，在这期间，关于那至今仍吸引着举国上下的注意，消耗着全民的精力的巨大斗争的各个阶段的任何一个细节，随时都有公告发奉，现在也实在再没有多少新东西可讲了。关于我们的军事进展情况 它是其它一切的主要依靠所在 ，公众也了解得和我本人一样清楚；而且我相信对所有的人来说都是相当满意和令人鼓舞的。既 然对未来充满了希望，那么在这里也就无意冒昧作出预测了。 也正是在四年之前我就任总统的那一场合，所有的人都在为即将来临的内战惴惴不安。所有的人都害怕内战 都竭力想避免内战发生。而当我在这里发表就职演说，决定不惜采用一 切力量，但不用战争，拯救联邦的时候，叛乱分子的代理人却在全城到处活动，力求不用战争摧毁联邦 力求通过谈判瓦解联邦，分裂国家。 双方都声称反对战争；但可是他们中的一方却宁愿发动战争也不让这个国家生存下去；另一方也则宁可接受战争也不能眼看着 国家灭亡。于 是战争便打起来了。 2 / 13 在全国人口中有八分之一是黑人奴隶，他们并非遍布在全国各地，而是大部分集中在我国南方。这些黑人构成一个特殊强有力的权益。大家都知道这权益是导致战争的原因。为了达到加强、永久化保持和扩大这个权益的目的，叛乱分子甚至不惜通过战争瓦解联邦；而政府方面，只不过是要求有权限制奴隶制扩大其地域。双方谁也没有料想到，战争竟会达到现在已出现了这种规模，或持续这么久。双方谁也不曾料到，冲突的缘由可能会随着冲突的结束而结束，或甚至在冲突本身结束之前，便已终止；每一方都寻求能比较轻易地获得胜利，战 争的结果也不那么带有根本性和惊人。双方都读着同一部圣经，祈祷于同一个上帝；每一方都求上帝帮助他们一方，而反对另一方。这看来也许有些不可思议，怎么可能有人公然敢于祈求公正的上帝帮助他从别人的血汗中榨取面包；不过，我们且不要论断别人，以免自 己遭到论断吧。双方的祈祷都不可能得到回应；任何一方的祈祷也没有得到充分的回应。全能的上帝另有他自己的目标。“由于种种罪过，世界受难了 !因为这些罪过是不可避免的；但是，让那引来罪过的人去受罪吧。” *如果我们假定美国的奴隶制是这里所说的罪恶之一，它按上帝的意旨是不可避免的， 而现在在经过了上帝规定的时限之后，他决心要消灭它，再假定上帝使得南北双方进行了这场可怕的战争，以作为那些犯下罪过的人应该遭受到的苦难，那么我们从中能看出有3 / 13 什么地方有悖于信仰上帝的信徒们总是赋于永远存在的上帝的那种神性吗 ?我们衷心地希望 热情地祈祷 但愿这可怕的战争灾祸能迅速过去。然而，如果上帝一定要让它继续下去，一直到奴隶们通过二百五十年的无偿劳动所堆积起来的财富烟消云散，一直到，如三千年前人们所说的那样，用鞭子抽出的每一滴血都要用刀剑刺 出的另一滴血来偿还，而到那时，我们也仍然得说，“主的审判是完全公 正无误的”。 * 我们对任何人也不怀恶意，我们对所有的人都宽大为怀，坚持正义；上帝既使我们认识正义，让我们继续努力向前，完成我们正在进行的事业；包扎起国家的创伤，关心那些为战争作出牺牲的人，关心他们的遗孀和孤儿 尽一切力量，以求在我们自己之间，以及我们和所有 的国家之间实现并维护一个公正和持久的和平。 At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of his great contest which still absorbs the attention and 4 / 13 engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving teing delivered from thisurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. Their slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this 5 / 13 interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just Gods assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other mens faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must need be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comet. If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through 6 / 13 His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern there in any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away? Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmans two hundred and fifty years of uequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the might, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nations wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all 7 / 13 nations. Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln March 4, 1865 Fellow-Countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of his great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered 8 / 13 from this place, devoted altogether to saving teing delivered from thisurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. Their slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. 9 / 13 Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just Gods assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other mens faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must need be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comet. If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern there in any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away? Yet, 10 / 13 if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmans two hundred and fifty years of uequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the might, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nations wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 林肯第二次就职演说 一八六四年当林肯再度当选连任总统职位时，美国仍为内战所分裂。当时战争的结果仍不能确定，而林肯的再度当选，成为北方人民决心作战到底争取最后胜利的一个令人振奋的表现。一八六五年三月四日当林肯宣誓就职时，局势清楚显示北方即将战胜，战争行将结束。在这篇就职演讲词中，林肯致力于讨论战后美国人民将面临的重大课题。林肯希望避免一切过错与惩罚的问题。当他准备实施这项政11 / 13 策时，一个刺客的枪弹葬送了他的崇高理想。 各位同胞： 在这第二次的宣誓就职典礼中，不像第一次就职的时候那样需要发表长篇演说。在那个时 候，对于当时所要进行的事业多少作一详细的说明，似乎是适当的。现在四年任期已满，在这段战争期间的每个重要时刻和阶段中 这个战争至今仍为举国所关怀，还且占用了国家大部分力量 都经常发布文告，所以现在很少有什么新的发展可以奉告。我们的军事进展，是一切其它问题的关键所在，各界人士对此情形是跟我一样熟悉的，而我相信进展的情况，可以使我们