林肯第二任总统就职演说

 　林肯第二任总统就职演说 SATURDAY, 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 1 of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth 2 on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses 3 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 4 civil war. All dreaded 5 it, all sought to avert 6 it. While the inaugural 7 address was being delivered from this place, devoted 8 altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent 9 agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war——seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation 10. 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. These slaves constituted a peculiar 11 and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate 12, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents 13 would rend 14 the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial 15 enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained 16. 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 17. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes 18 His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing 19 their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully 20. The Almighty 21 has His own purposes. Woe 23 unto the world because of offenses 25; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense 24 cometh. If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence 26 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 therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently 27 do we pray, that this mighty 22 scourge 28 of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil 29 shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn 30 with the lash 31 shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said the judgments 32 of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
　　With malice 33 toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind 34 up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan 35, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting 36 peace among ourselves and with all nations. 奥巴马无谓的希望演讲稿