托马斯．杰斐逊
(THOMAS JEFFERSON)

第一任就职演说
First Inaugural Address

(American Memory Collection, Library of Congress)

如果我们当中有人想解散这一联邦，或者想改变它的共和体制，那麽就让他们去吧，不用干扰他们，这样做就爲安全树立了标志，表明在一个理智能够自由地与之斗争的地方，错误的意见是可以容忍的。

托马斯．杰斐逊(1743－1826)和班哲明．富兰克林一样是个多才多艺的人。他是一位天才的作家、政治家、音乐家、建筑师、哲学家、发明家和法学家。他曾在 维吉尼亚州议会和大陆议会任职。在大陆议会任职时，他起草了《独立宣言》。他后来曾任维吉尼亚州长、驻欧洲的外交官和乔治．华盛顿的国务卿。

1801年，在激烈的竞选中，杰斐逊当选爲总统。在美国，这是第一次把政府权力由一个政党(联邦主义者)转移给另一个政党(共和党人或民主─共和党人)。在选举院里，杰斐逊和阿伦．伯尔所得的选举人票数相等，后由衆议院选择杰斐逊当总统。

杰斐逊的就职演说是第一篇由一位总统在首都华盛顿发表的演说。当时新政府刚从费城搬到首都华盛顿。在经历了一番竞选苦战之后，杰斐逊以这篇演说来统一国家，并明确表明他的施政纲领。

在我们所经历的一段争论中，大家热烈讨论，竞相奔走，初见的人，由于不习惯于自由思考，不习惯于把所想的说出来或写出来，看见那种情形，可能相顾失色；但现在已由全国的民意作出决定，并根据宪法的规定予以公布，大家当然会遵照法律，妥爲安排，并且爲了共同的利益，团结一致，同心协力。大家也会记住这样一条原则，即多数人的意愿，虽然在任何情况下都应采纳，但那种意愿也必须合理才能站得住脚；而且少数人也有同等的权利，必须受平等的法律的保护，如果予以侵犯，便是压制。那麽，同胞们，让我们团结一致，同心同德吧，让我们恢复和睦相处，彼此友爱吧，因爲没有它们，自由，甚至生活本身，都将成爲无聊的事物。我们还应思量，现在我们已经把那种使人类长期流血和受害的宗教偏执性从我们国土上摒弃了，如果我们又支持政治上的偏执性，而其专横、邪恶，以及所造成的酷烈和血腥的迫害，都与宗教偏执性所导致的后果一样，那麽我们的所得便很有限了。当旧世界经历痛苦和激变时，当盛怒的人们经受痛苦的痉挛，想通过流血和屠杀寻找他们丧失已久的自由时，那巨涛般的震撼甚至会传到遥远而和平的此岸；各人对这种震撼的感觉和恐惧的程度不尽相同，对 于采取安全措施也有意见分歧，这些都不足爲奇。但是，意见分歧并不都是原则分歧。我们遵守同一原则的兄弟们，曾被加以各种不同的称号。我们都是共和党人，我们都是联邦同盟会员。如果我们当中有人想解散这一联邦，或者想改变它的共和体制，那麽就让他们去吧，不用干扰他们，这样做就爲安全树立了标志，表明在一个理智能够自由地与之斗争的地方，错误的意见是可以容忍的。我的确知道有些诚实的人担心共和政府不能强大有力，担心这个政府不够强有力；但是，一个诚实的爱国者，会在试验最成功的时候，仅因理论上的和虚幻的疑惧，以爲这个世界寄予最美好希望的政府可能不足以自存，就放弃这个一直使我们享有自由和安定的政府吗?我相信不会。相反，我相信这个政府是世界上最强的政府，我相信在这个政府之下，无论何人，一经法律召唤，就会飞奔而来响应法律所要求做的事，而且会像处理自己的私事一样去对付侵犯公共秩序的行爲。有时，人们说，一个人自己管自己是不可靠的。那麽，让别人去管他们就会可靠吗?或者我们是否觉得以国王身份出现的天使来管理人们才可靠呢?这个问题让历史来回答吧。

因此，让我们秉着勇气和信心，继续奉行我们自己的联邦同盟和共和党的原则，拥护联邦和代议制政府。我们由于自然环境和大洋的阻隔，幸免于全球四分之一地区那种毁灭性的浩劫；我们品格高尚，不能容忍别人的堕落；我们蒙天赐良土，足以容纳于秋万代的子孙；我们有一种观念，认爲在发挥自己的才能上，在取得自己的勤劳之所得上，在赢得我们同胞的尊敬与信赖上，(这种信赖和尊敬不是出自门第，而是来自我们的行爲和他们的体会。)都享有同等的权利；我们都受到善良宗教的啓迪，虽然派别不同，可是所有教派都诲人以正直、信实、节制、感恩和仁爱；我们承认和崇拜主宰一切的上帝，上帝所行之道证明其乐见人类现世的幸福和死后更大的幸福──有了这些神恩，我们还需要什麽才能使我们成爲一个幸福和欣欣向荣的民族呢?各位同胞，我们还需要一样东西，那就是一个明智和节俭的政府，它防止人们相残，让人们自由地从事他们自己的事业并不断进步，而且不能夺取人们勤劳之所得。这就是一个良好政府的要旨，也是我们获得圆满幸福所必需的。

各位同胞，我就要开始履行职责了，由于这种职责包容了你们所珍惜的一切，我觉得你们应当了解什麽是我所认爲的我们政府的基本原则，以及那些指导我施政的原则。我打算尽量简略地加以陈述，只讲一般原则，而不讲其全部范畴：不管人们的地位、宗教信仰或政治主张有何不同，人人都应得到平等和绝对公正的待遇；与所有国家和平相处，互相通商，并保持诚挚的友谊，但不与任何国家结盟，以免纠缠不清；维护各州政府的一切权利，使它们成爲处理我们内政最合适的机构，以及抵制反共和趋势的最有力的屏障；维护全国的政府，使之能充分行使宪法赋予的权力，从而成爲对内和平和对外安全的最后堡垒；要十分注意维护人民的选举权，因爲革命留下的弊端，一时没有和平的补救办法，而人民选举权乃是对那些弊端的一种温和而安全的矫正手段；要绝对服从多数的决定，这是共和政体的主要原则，离开这个原则，便只好诉诸武力，而这就是专制的主要原则和直接起源；要维持一支纪律严明的民团，以作爲和平时期和战争初期的最好依仗，直至正规军来接替；实行文权高于军校的政制；节省政府开支，减轻劳动人民的负担；如实偿还我们的债务，把维护政府的信用看作神圣的义务；促进农业发展，并鼓励以商辅农；传播知识并以公衆理智爲依据谴责一切弊端；保障宗教自由及出版自由，并以人身保护令以及由公平选出的陪审团进行审判来保障人身自由。在革命和改革的时代，这些原则成了在我们前面照耀，指引我们前进的星座。我们圣哲的智慧，我们英雄的鲜血，都曾奉献出来实现这些原则。它们应当是我们政治信念的纲领，公民教育的课本，检验我们所信托者的工作的试金石；如果因一时的错误或惊惶而背弃了这些原则，我们应当赶快回头，重新走上这条通往和平、自由和安全的唯一大道……

   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 possesses 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, staling 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..,.