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美国总统就职演说全编txt

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篇一:美国新总统奥巴马就职演说(全文)

亲爱的同胞们: 我今天站在这里,因眼前的任务感到谦卑,因你们的信任而感激,同时缅怀我们的前人所做出的牺牲。感谢布什总统为美国做出的贡献,和他在总统任期交叠进程中的慷慨合作。 至此,共有四十四位美国人曾进行过总统宣誓。这一誓言曾在国家和平、欣欣向荣时做出过。然而这一誓辞更曾在乌云笼罩和风暴袭来之时被宣读。美国人民之所以能够走过那些艰巨的时刻,不单单是由于领袖的能力或远见;更是由于我们,我们人民,保持着对先人理想的虔诚,对我们国家开创文件的追随。 对我们这一代美国人来讲,也是这样,也必须这样。 国家正面临危机,这一点大家已没有疑问。美国处在战争当中,面对一个有巨大影响力、布满暴力和仇恨的网络。我们的经济严重衰退。这来源于部份人的贪婪和不负责任,更由于作为一个整体,我们未能做出面对一个新时代的艰巨决策。人民失往房屋、工作机会减少、贸易活动遭到破坏。医疗保障过于昂贵,学校教育系统出现太多失败。而我们对能源的使用,日益让对手强大,与此同时又要挟着我们的星球。 这些,是从数据和统计中可以看到的危机信号。还有难以度量但一样深远的题目,那就是整个国家信心的缺失。那缭绕在我们头上的恐惧,以为美国的衰落不可避免,以为我们的下一代人不可能再有太高的期看。 今天我要对你们说,我们面临的挑战是逼真的、严重的,而且有很多重。解决他们不可能很轻松,也不可能在短时间内发生。但美国人民,请记住这一点:这些挑战会被解决。 今天,我们聚集在一起,由于我们选择了希看而不是恐惧;我们选择了为共同的目标团结在一起,而不是冲突与争执。 今天,我们共同终结那些虚假的承诺、陈腐的教条、和指摘与怨言。这些已困扰了我们的政治体系太长时间。 我们的国家仍然年轻,但借用圣经中的话,该是抛开那些孩子气的时候了。现在,需要重新拿出我们的坚韧精神,选择自己的历史。我们要延续代代相传的宝贵礼物,延续神圣的理想,那就是上帝赐予我们的承诺--人人同等,人人自由,人人都有机会往寻求最大程度的幸福。 在重温我们国家伟大的同时,我们必须明白,伟大不是平空而来的,而是赢得的。在我们的历程中,历来没有走捷(本文来自:wwW.xIaocAofanwEn.coM 小草 范文 网:美国总统就职演说全编txt)径或是退而求其次。这一历程不是为脆弱者预备的,不是为那些享乐高于工作、只知寻求名利的人预备的。相反,是那些甘于承当风险的人,实干家,创造者--有些众人皆知,而更多的在辛劳工作中默默无闻--是他们带着我们穿越漫长、坎坷的道路走向繁华与自由。 为了我们,他们把唯一的财物装进行囊,漂洋过海寻求新的生活。为了我们,他们开辟西部,在条件卑劣的工厂中流血流汗;他们忍耐鞭笞,开垦贫瘠的土地。 为了我们,他们战争和牺牲在协和镇(Concord)、葛底斯堡(Gettysburg)、诺曼底和科萨恩(KheSahn)。

篇二:美国历届总统就职演说

华盛顿:First Inaugural Address of George Washington

THE CITY OF NEW YORK

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1789

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years--a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil

administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private

good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which

conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.

By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to

recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The

circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those

circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a

recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of

communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union

between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered

expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective

government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.

To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled

unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

美国人民的实验

乔治-华盛顿

第一次就职演讲

纽约 星期四,1789年4月30日

参议院和众议院的同胞们:

在人生沉浮中,没有一件事能比本月14日收到根据你们的命令送达的通知更使我焦虑不安,一方面,国家召唤我出任此职,对于她的召唤,我永远只能肃然敬从;而隐退是我以挚爱心憎、满腔希望和坚定的决心选择的暮年归宿,由于爱好和习惯,且时光流逝,健康渐衰,时感体力不济,愈觉隐退之必要和可贵。另一方面,国家召唤我担负的责任如此重大和艰巨,足以使国内最有才智和经验的人度德量力,而我天资愚饨,又无民政管理的实践,理应倍觉自己能力之不足,因而必然感到难以肩此重任。怀着这种矛盾心情,我唯一敢断言的是,通过正确估计可能产生影响的各种情况来克尽厥职,乃是我忠贞不渝的努力目标。我唯一敢祈望的是,如果我在执行这项任务时因陶醉于往事,或因由衷感激公民们对我的高度信赖,因而受到过多影响,以致在处理从未经历过的大事时,忽视了自己的无能和消极,我的错误将会由于使我误人歧途的各种动机而减轻,而大家在评判错误的后果时;也会适当包涵产生这些动机的偏见。

既然这就是我在遵奉公众召唤就任现职时的感想,那么,在此宣誓就职之际,如不热忱地祈求全能的上帝就极其失当,因为上帝统治着宇宙,主宰着各国政府,它的神助能弥补人类的任何不足,愿上帝赐福,侃佑一个为美国人民的自由和幸福而组成的政府,保佑它为这些基本目的而作出奉献,保佑政府的各项行政措施在我负责之下都能成功地发挥作用。我相信,在向公众利益和私人利益的伟大缔造者献上这份崇敬时,这些活也同样表达了各位和广大公民的心意。没有人能比美国人更坚定不移地承认和崇拜掌管人间事务的上帝。他们在迈向独立国家的进程中,似乎每走一步都有某种天佑的迹象;他们在刚刚完成的联邦政府体制的重大改革中,如果不是因虔诚的感恩而得到某种回报,如果不是谦卑地期待着过去有所预示的赐福的到来,那么,通过众多截然不同的集团的平静思考和自愿赞同来完成改革,这种方式是不能与大多数政府的组建方式同日而语的。在目前转折关头,我产生这些想法确实是深有所感而不能自已,我相信大家会和我怀有同感,即除了仰仗上帝的力量,一个新生的自由政府别无他法能一开始就事事顺利。根据设立行政部门的条款,总统有责任“将他认为必要而妥善的措施提请国会审议”。但在目前与各位见面的这个场合,恕我不进一步讨论这个问题,而只提一下伟大的宪法,它使各位今天聚集一堂,它规定了各位的权限,指出了各位应该注意的目标。在这样的场合,更恰当、也更能反映我内心激情的做法是不提出具体措施,而是称颂将要规划和采纳这些措施的当选者的才能、正直和爱国心。我从这些高贵品格中看到了最可靠的保证:其一,任何地方偏见或地方感情,任何意见分歧或党派敌视,都不能使我们偏离全局观点和公平观点,即必须维护这个由不同地区和利益所组成的大联合;因此,其二,我国的政策将会以纯洁而坚定的个人道德原则为基础,而自由政府将会以那赢得民心和全世界尊敬的一切特点而显示其优越性。我对国家的一片热爱之心激励着我满怀喜悦地展望这幅远景,因为根据自然界的构成和发展趋势,在美德与幸福之间,责任与利益之间,恪守诚实宽厚的政策与获得社会繁荣幸福的硕果之间,有着密不可分的统一;因为我们应该同样相信,上帝亲自规定了水恒的秩序和权利法则,它决不可能对无视这些法则的国家慈祥地加以赞许;因为人们理所当然地、满怀深情地、也许是最后一次把维护神圣的自由之火和共和制政府的命运,系于美国人所遵命进行的实验上。

我已将有感于这一聚会场合的想法奉告各位,现在我就要向大家告辞;但在此以前,我要再一次以谦卑的心情祈求仁慈的上帝给予帮助。因为承蒙上帝的恩赐,美国人有了深思熟虑的机会,以及为确保联邦的安全和促进幸福,用前所未有的一致意见来决定政府体制的意向;因而,同样明显的是,上帝将保佑我们扩大眼界,心平气和地进行协商,并采取明智的措施,而这些都是本届政府取得成功所必不可少的依靠。

杰斐逊:Thomas Jefferson First Inaugural Address

First Inaugural Address

March 4, 1801

FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the

greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye --

when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair did not the presence of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high authorities provided by our Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then,

gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.

During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody

persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth

generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens -- a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican

tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people -- a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no

appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of

commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.

I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With experience enough in

subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country's love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all.

Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make. And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity.

同心同德地团结起来

托马斯-杰斐逊 第一次就职演讲

华盛顿,星期三,1801年3月4日

朋友们、同胞们:

我应召担任国家的最高行政长官,值此诸位同胞集会之时,我衷心感谢大家寄予我的厚爱,诚挚地说,我意识到这项任务非我能力所及,其责任之重大,本人能力之浅簿,自然使我就任时忧惧交加。一个沃野千里的新兴国家,带着丰富的工业产品跨海渡洋,同那些自恃强权、不顾公理的国家进行贸易,向着世人无法预见的天命疾奔——当我思考这些重大的目标,当我想到这个可爱的国家,其荣誉、幸福和希望都系于这个问题和今天的盛典,我就不敢再想下去,并面对这宏图大业自惭德薄能鲜。确实,若不是在这里见到许多先生们在场,使我想起无论遇到什么困难,都可以向宪法规定的另一高级机构寻找智慧、美德和热忱的源泉,我一定会完全心灰意懒。因此,负有神圣的立法职责的先生们和各位有关人士,我鼓起勇气期望你们给予指引和支持,使我们能够在乱世纷争中同舟共济,安然航行。

在我们过去的意见交锋中,大家热烈讨论,各展所长,这种紧张气氛,有时会使不习惯于自由思想、不习惯于说出或写下自己想法的人感到不安;但如今,这场争论既已由全国的民意作出决定,而且根据宪法的规定予以公布,大家当然会服从法律的意志,妥为安排,为共同的利益齐心协力,大家也会铭记这条神圣的原则;尽管在任何情况下,多数人的意志是起决定作用的,但这种意志必须合理才瞩公正;少数人享有同等权利,这种权利必须同样受到法律保护,如果侵犯,便是压迫。因此,公民们,让我们同心同德地团结起来。让我们在社会交往中和睦如初、恢复友爱,如果没有这

篇三:历任美国总统就职演说的点睛之笔

中国一句成语叫画龙点睛,往往最后一笔最传神。美国新任总统的就职演说也是一样,最值得关注的就是最后一部分,如何让听众情绪high到最高点。当然,我指的是演讲的最后一部分,而不一定是最后一句话,因为美国总统演讲的

最后一句话一般都上帝有关,最典型的一句是God bless you and may God bless America(愿上帝保佑你们,保佑美利坚),有点像过去中国人说的“万岁万岁万万岁”,只是一个程式。正如毛泽东所说,真正的上帝其实就是人民大众,

美国的总统对这一点也非常清楚,所以演讲的最后总是落脚到美国民众。 直到今天,人们还津津乐道1961年1月20日肯尼迪就职演讲结尾时的点睛之笔:“我的美国同胞们:不要问你的国家可以为你做什么,而要问你可以为你的国家做什么(my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country)”。肯尼迪的那番话对他的美国同胞提出了高标准严要求,而肯尼迪的继承人约翰逊在1965年1月20日的就职演说的结尾则引用了圣经的一句话恭维他的美国同胞:“请赐我智慧与知识,让我得以面对我们的人民。不然,如何能估量出我们人民的伟大呢?”(Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for

who can judge this thy people, that is so great?)

约翰逊之后的总统就是打开中美关系大门的尼克松总统,他两度当选总统,所以有两次就职演说。他在1973年1月20日第二次就职演说的结尾提起了他的前任:“当我站在这里,一个被历史赋予了神圣性的地方,我想到了在我之前曾经站在这里的那些人,想到了他们的美国梦,我知道他们中的每个人都意识到:为了使梦想成真,他们个人的努力远远不够,需要民众的助力(As I stand

in this place, so hallowed by history, I think of others who have stood here

before me. I think of the dreams they had for America, and I think of how each

recognized that he needed help far beyond himself in order to make those

dreams come true)”。

1977年1月20日卡特总统在就职演说中的结尾已经提到了他离任的那一天:“我和你们一样希望,当我作为你们的总统任期结束的时候,人们将会这样

谈论我们的国家:…..”(And I join in the hope that when my time as your

President has ended, people might say this about our Nation:…….),他的希望包括了很多内容,但都很朴实,这里只举几个例子:每个有劳动能力的人都找到了有价值的工作;不论强弱、贫富在法律面前都人人平等;每个美国家庭都和谐

兴旺。

卡特只担任了一任总统,接任的里根则担任了两届总统职位,他在1981年1月20日第一次就职演讲的结尾讲了第一次世界大战中一个普通士兵的故事。这个士兵的名字叫Martin Treptow,他本来在美国一个小城的理发店工作,大战开始后他应征入伍来到了法国战场。当这位士兵在战场上牺牲后,人们在他的身上发现了一个日记本,里面有这样的“决心书”(my pledge):“美国必胜。为此,我要工作,我要节俭,我要奉献,我要忍耐,我要热忱地竭尽最大努力去战

斗,就好象整个战争的胜负取决于我一个人(America must win this war.

Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight

cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on

me alone)”。

1989年1月20日就职的老布什在就职演讲的最后也谈到了历史,但是不是像里根那样讲了一个动人故事,而是诗情画意的描述:“我把历史看作是一本有许多页码的书籍,每一页都记录了心想事成的每一天。微风吹过,翻开了新的一页,新的故事开始了(But I see history as a book with many pages, and each day we fill a page with acts of hopefulness and meaning. The new breeze

blows, a page turns, the story unfolds)”。

克林顿在1997年1月20日他的第2次就职演说的最后也使用了诗的语言,但不是像布什一样描述历史,而是展望未来:“我们还看不到我们的后代的面孔,也永远不会知道他们的名字,但是当他们谈论到我们的时候,希望他们会说我们把祖国领进了新的世纪,把有活力的美国梦留给了所有的子孙(May those generations whose faces we cannot yet see, whose names we may never know, say of us here that we led our beloved land into a new century with the

American Dream alive for all her children)”。

2001年1月20日,小布什在他的第1次就职演讲中的最后使用了排比句式鼓舞民心:“永不疲惫、永不气馁、永不完竭,今天我们重树这样的目标:使我们的国家变得更加公正、更加慷慨,去体现我们每个人和所有人生命的尊严(Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that purpose today, to make our country more just and generous, to affirm the dignity of our lives and

every life.)。

小布什虽然说得好听,但是他重树的目标显然并没有达到。8年后,当美国历史上第一位非洲裔总统就任的时候,奥巴马是以这样颇为沉重的语句结束他的就职演说的:“满怀希望和信念,让我们再度穿越冰凌,顶住来袭的风暴。愿我们的孩子的孩子们这样评说:当先辈们当年面临严峻考验的时候,他们没有停下脚步,没有回头,也没有动摇…(With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end,

that we did not turn back nor did we falter…)”。

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