As a subject for the remarks of the evening, “The perpetuation of our political institutions” is selected.
In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrityn. /səˈluːbrəti/ 气候宜人，有益健康 of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions conducingv. /kənˈduːsɪŋ/ 有助于，导向（conduce to） more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them; they are a legacy bequeathedv. /bɪˈkwiːðd/ 遗赠，留传（bequeath 的过去分词） us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only to transmit these—the former unprofanedadj. /ˌʌnprəˈfeɪnd/ 未被玷污的，未遭亵渎的 by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpationn. /ˌjuːzərˈpeɪʃn/ 篡夺，僭取—to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.
In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrityn. /səˈluːbrəti/ 气候宜人，有益健康 of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions conducingv. /kənˈduːsɪŋ/ 有助于，导向（conduce to） more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them; they are a legacy bequeathedv. /bɪˈkwiːðd/ 遗赠，留传（bequeath 的过去分词） us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only to transmit these—the former unprofanedadj. /ˌʌnprəˈfeɪnd/ 未被玷污的，未遭亵渎的 by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpationn. /ˌjuːzərˈpeɪʃn/ 篡夺，僭取—to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.
今晚要谈的题目，选定为「我们政治制度的永续」。
在太阳底下所发生之事的宏大纪事中，我们美国人的账目，是记在基督教纪元十九世纪这一日期之下的。我们发现自己和平地占有着地球上最美好的一片土地——无论就疆域之广、土壤之肥，还是气候之宜人而言。我们发现自己处在一套政治制度的治理之下，这套制度比以往任何时代的历史所告诉我们的任何制度，都更切中公民自由与宗教自由的根本目的。我们登上生存的舞台时，就发现自己已是这些根本福祉的法定继承人。我们不曾为获得或建立它们而辛劳；它们是一位曾经坚忍、勇敢、爱国，如今已令人哀念、已然逝去的祖先族群留给我们的遗产。他们的任务是（而他们完成得何其高贵）为自己、并通过自己为我们，占有这片美好的土地，在它的山丘与河谷之上，筑起一座自由与平等权利的政治大厦；我们所要做的，只是把这些传下去——前者不被侵略者的脚步所玷污，后者不被时间的流逝所侵蚀、不被篡夺所撕裂——传给命运允许世人知道的最后一代。这一任务，对父辈的感恩、对自己的公义、对后世的义务，以及对人类全体的爱，都命令我们必须忠实地去完成。
在太阳底下所发生之事的宏大纪事中，我们美国人的账目，是记在基督教纪元十九世纪这一日期之下的。我们发现自己和平地占有着地球上最美好的一片土地——无论就疆域之广、土壤之肥，还是气候之宜人而言。我们发现自己处在一套政治制度的治理之下，这套制度比以往任何时代的历史所告诉我们的任何制度，都更切中公民自由与宗教自由的根本目的。我们登上生存的舞台时，就发现自己已是这些根本福祉的法定继承人。我们不曾为获得或建立它们而辛劳；它们是一位曾经坚忍、勇敢、爱国，如今已令人哀念、已然逝去的祖先族群留给我们的遗产。他们的任务是（而他们完成得何其高贵）为自己、并通过自己为我们，占有这片美好的土地，在它的山丘与河谷之上，筑起一座自由与平等权利的政治大厦；我们所要做的，只是把这些传下去——前者不被侵略者的脚步所玷污，后者不被时间的流逝所侵蚀、不被篡夺所撕裂——传给命运允许世人知道的最后一代。这一任务，对父辈的感恩、对自己的公义、对后世的义务，以及对人类全体的爱，都命令我们必须忠实地去完成。
How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortifyv. /ˈfɔːrtɪfaɪ/ 加固，设防 against it? Shall we expect some transatlanticadj. /ˌtrænzətˈlæntɪk/ 跨大西洋的，来自大西洋彼岸的 military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lotn. /lɑːt/ 命运，定分 we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lotn. /lɑːt/ 命运，定分 we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.
那么，我们该怎样去完成它？我们该在哪个点上提防危险的逼近？我们该用什么办法来加固自己？我们难道要指望某个跨越大西洋的军事巨人渡海而来，一举将我们碾碎吗？绝不会！欧洲、亚洲、非洲的全部军队合在一起，加上世上所有的财富（我们自己的那份除外）装进他们的军费库，再有一位波拿巴做统帅，在一千年的较量中，也无法用武力从俄亥俄河里取一瓢水喝，或在蓝岭上踩出一条路来。
那么，危险的逼近究竟该在哪个点上提防？我的回答是：倘若它真会降临到我们头上，它必定从我们中间生长出来；它不可能来自国外。倘若毁灭是我们的命运，我们就必须自己充当它的作者与完成者。作为一个自由人的国度，我们要么永远活下去，要么死于自杀。
那么，危险的逼近究竟该在哪个点上提防？我的回答是：倘若它真会降临到我们头上，它必定从我们中间生长出来；它不可能来自国外。倘若毁灭是我们的命运，我们就必须自己充当它的作者与完成者。作为一个自由人的国度，我们要么永远活下去，要么死于自杀。
I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is even now something of ill omenphr. /ˌɪl ˈoʊmən/ 凶兆，不祥之兆 amongst us. I mean the increasing disregardn. /ˌdɪsrɪˈɡɑːrd/ 漠视，不顾 for law which pervades the country—the growing dispositionn. /ˌdɪspəˈzɪʃn/ 倾向，习性 to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu ofphr. /ɪn ˈluː əv/ 代替，取代 the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs form the every-day news of the times. They have pervadedv. /pərˈveɪdɪd/ 遍及，弥漫（pervade 的过去分词） the country from New England to Louisiana, they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns of the latter; they are not the creature of climate, neither are they confined to the slaveholding or the non-slaveholding States. Alike they spring up among the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause may be, it is common to the whole country.
我希望是我过虑了；但倘若不是，那么就在此刻，我们中间已经有某种不祥之兆。我指的是那种弥漫全国的、对法律日益增长的漠视——那种日渐滋长的倾向：以狂烈暴怒的激情取代法庭冷静清醒的裁断，以比野蛮人更凶残的暴民取代执法的官吏。这种倾向，在任何共同体中都是极其可怖的；而它如今存在于我们这里——尽管承认这一点令人难受，但否认它就是对真相的违背、对我们智力的侮辱。暴民所犯下的暴行，构成了这个时代每日的新闻。它们从新英格兰一直蔓延到路易斯安那；它们既非前者终年积雪之地所独有，也非后者烈日灼人之地所特有；它们不是气候的产物，也不限于蓄奴州或不蓄奴州。它们同样既在南方奴隶的寻欢作乐的主人中间冒出来，也在素有「习俗恒常之地」之称的新英格兰爱好秩序的公民中间冒出来。那么，无论其原因是什么，它都是全国共有的。
But you are perhaps ready to ask, “What has this to do with the perpetuation of our political institutions?” I answer, “It has much to do with it.” Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but a small evil, and much of its danger consists in the pronenessn. /ˈproʊnnəs/ 倾向，易于…的习性 of our minds to regard its direct as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. They constitute a portion of population that is worse than useless in any community; and their death, if no perniciousadj. /pərˈnɪʃəs/ 有害的，恶性的 example be set by it, is never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If they were annually swept from the stage of existence by the plague or smallpox, honest men would perhaps be much profited by the operation. Similar too is the correct reasoning in regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. He had forfeitedv. /ˈfɔːrfɪtɪd/ 丧失，因罪而失去（forfeit 的过去分词） his life by the perpetration of an outrageous murder upon one of the most worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had he not died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law in a very short time afterward. As to him alone, it was as well the way it was as it could otherwise have been. But the example in either case was fearful. When men take it in their heads to-day to hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should recollect that in the confusion usually attending such transactions they will be as likely to hang or burn some one who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is, and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of to-morrow may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so; the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the persons and property of individuals are trodden down and disregarded. But all this, even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used to no restraint but dread of punishment, they thus become absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded government as their deadliest banen. /beɪn/ 祸根，毁灭之源, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations, and pray for nothing so much as its total annihilationn. /əˌnaɪəˈleɪʃn/ 彻底毁灭，覆灭. While, on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country, seeing their property destroyed, their families insulted, and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better, become tired of and disgusted with a government that offers them no protection, and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic spirit which all must admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwarkn. /ˈbʊlwərk/ 堡垒，屏障 of any government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed—I mean the attachment of the people. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious portion of [our] population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunityn. /ɪmˈpjuːnəti/ 免受惩罚，逍遥法外, depend upon it, this government cannot last. By such things the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will be left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric which for the last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom throughout the world.
但诸位也许就要问了：「这与我们政治制度的永续有什么关系？」我回答：「关系极大。」它直接的后果，相对而言只是小恶；它的危险，很大一部分恰恰在于我们心里那种把直接后果当作唯一后果的倾向。抽象地看，维克斯堡绞死赌徒一事本身无足轻重。赌徒在任何共同体中都是比无用更糟的一部分人；他们的死，只要不因此立下有害的先例，从来不会成为任何人理当惋惜的事。倘若他们年年被瘟疫或天花从生存的舞台上扫除，老实人或许还会从中大得其利。对圣路易斯烧死那个黑人的事，正确的推理也与此相同。他犯下了一桩残暴的谋杀，杀害了城里最可敬、最体面的一位公民，因而已经丧失了性命；即使他不曾这样死去，再过很短的时间，他也必定会死于法律的判决。单就他一个人而言，事情这样发生，与以别的方式发生，一样地好。但这两件事所立下的先例，都是可怕的。当人们今天心血来潮要去绞死赌徒、烧死杀人犯时，他们应当想到：在这类事件通常伴随着的混乱之中，他们既可能绞死或烧死一个真正的赌徒或杀人犯，也完全可能绞死或烧死一个两者都不是的人；而且，照着他们立下的先例行事，明天的暴民就可能——而且多半会——因为完全同样的错误，把他们当中的某些人绞死或烧死。不仅如此；那些无辜的人，那些一向在任何形式上都反对违法的人，会与有罪的人一样，沦为暴民之法横行的牺牲品；于是事情一步步发展下去，直到为保护个人人身与财产而筑起的一切墙垣，都被踩在脚下、弃之不顾。然而，即便这一切，也还不是恶的全部。有了这样的先例，有了这类行凶者逍遥法外的事例，心中无法无天的人便被鼓动去在行动上无法无天；而他们既从来只受制于对惩罚的畏惧，如今便变得全然无所约束。他们一向把政府视为自己最致命的祸根，于是把政府运作的中止当作狂欢的节日，所祈求的莫过于它的彻底覆灭。另一方面，善良的人们——热爱安宁、愿意遵守法律并享受其裨益、甘愿为保卫祖国而洒尽鲜血的人们——眼看着自己的财产被毁、家人受辱、性命垂危、人身受伤，又看不到前景中有任何好转的征兆，于是对一个不能给他们任何保护的政府感到厌倦与厌恶，对于一场他们自认为在其中没有什么可失去的变革，也就不太反对了。于是，凭着这种如今人人都必须承认已在国内横行的暴民精神的作用，任何政府、尤其是像我们这样组成的政府，其最坚固的堡垒都可能被有效地攻破摧毁——我指的是人民对它的依恋。一旦这种后果在我们中间产生；一旦人口中邪恶的那一部分被容许成百上千地结伙成群，焚烧教堂、洗劫并抢夺粮铺、把印刷机扔进河里、枪杀编辑，任意而免受惩罚地绞死、烧死他们厌恶的人——那就请相信：这个政府不可能长久。经由这些事情，最优秀公民的感情会或多或少地与之疏远；于是它将被弄得没有朋友，或朋友太少，而这少数人又太弱，无法使他们的友谊发挥作用。到了那样的时候、在那样的情况下，绝不缺少才干与野心兼备的人，去抓住时机、发动一击，推翻那座在过去半个世纪里一直是全世界自由爱好者最殷切希望的美丽大厦。
I know the American people are much attached to their government; I know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils long and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for another,—yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come.
Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected.
The question recurs, “How shall we fortify against it?” The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterityn. /pɑːˈsterəti/ 后代，子孙 swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws let every American pledgev. /pledʒ/ 以…作担保，誓守 his life, his property, and his sacred honor—let every man remember that to violate the law is to tramplev. /ˈtræmpl/ 践踏，踩踏 on the blood of his father, and to tear the chartern. /ˈtʃɑːrtər/ 特许状，宪章 of his own and his children's liberty. Let reverencen. /ˈrevərəns/ 崇敬，敬畏 for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.
While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or even very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom.
Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected.
The question recurs, “How shall we fortify against it?” The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterityn. /pɑːˈsterəti/ 后代，子孙 swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws let every American pledgev. /pledʒ/ 以…作担保，誓守 his life, his property, and his sacred honor—let every man remember that to violate the law is to tramplev. /ˈtræmpl/ 践踏，踩踏 on the blood of his father, and to tear the chartern. /ˈtʃɑːrtər/ 特许状，宪章 of his own and his children's liberty. Let reverencen. /ˈrevərəns/ 崇敬，敬畏 for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.
While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or even very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom.
我知道美国人民深爱自己的政府；我知道他们愿意为它承受许多苦难；我知道他们会长久而耐心地忍受种种弊病，然后才会想到要把它换成另一个政府——然而，尽管如此，倘若法律持续遭到蔑视与无视，倘若他们人身与财产的安全所凭靠的，并不比暴民的一时任性更牢靠，那么，他们对政府感情的疏离便是自然的结果；而事情迟早必定走到那一步。
那么，这里就是一个可以预期危险降临的所在。
问题又回到：「我们该怎样加固自己以防它？」答案很简单。让每一个美国人、每一个自由的热爱者、每一个为自己子孙祝愿的人，都以革命者的鲜血起誓：绝不违反国家的法律，哪怕是最细微的一点；也绝不容忍他人违反。正如七六年的爱国者们为支持《独立宣言》所做的那样，为支持宪法与法律，让每一个美国人以自己的生命、财产和神圣的荣誉作担保——让每一个人记住：违法就是践踏自己父辈的鲜血，就是撕毁自己和自己子女的自由特许状。让对法律的崇敬，由每一位美国母亲吹进她膝上咿呀学语的婴孩心里；让它在学校、神学院和大学里被讲授；让它写进识字课本、拼读课本和历书；让它从讲坛上宣讲，在立法大厅里宣告，在法庭上执行。总之，让它成为这个国家的政治宗教；让老与少、富与贫、庄重者与欢快者，不分性别、语言、肤色与身份，都在它的祭坛上不断地献祭。
只要这样的情感状态在全国普遍地、或者哪怕只是相当广泛地盛行，那么，任何要颠覆我们国家自由的努力都将是徒劳，任何这样的企图都将毫无结果。
那么，这里就是一个可以预期危险降临的所在。
问题又回到：「我们该怎样加固自己以防它？」答案很简单。让每一个美国人、每一个自由的热爱者、每一个为自己子孙祝愿的人，都以革命者的鲜血起誓：绝不违反国家的法律，哪怕是最细微的一点；也绝不容忍他人违反。正如七六年的爱国者们为支持《独立宣言》所做的那样，为支持宪法与法律，让每一个美国人以自己的生命、财产和神圣的荣誉作担保——让每一个人记住：违法就是践踏自己父辈的鲜血，就是撕毁自己和自己子女的自由特许状。让对法律的崇敬，由每一位美国母亲吹进她膝上咿呀学语的婴孩心里；让它在学校、神学院和大学里被讲授；让它写进识字课本、拼读课本和历书；让它从讲坛上宣讲，在立法大厅里宣告，在法庭上执行。总之，让它成为这个国家的政治宗教；让老与少、富与贫、庄重者与欢快者，不分性别、语言、肤色与身份，都在它的祭坛上不断地献祭。
只要这样的情感状态在全国普遍地、或者哪怕只是相当广泛地盛行，那么，任何要颠覆我们国家自由的努力都将是徒劳，任何这样的企图都将毫无结果。