Friends and Citizens:
朋友们，公民们：
The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.
很快，美国公民又要选举出合众国政府的行政官，届时你们要任命一个值得你们信任的人，现在我要告知各位，我已下定决心，拒绝参加本届选举，在我看来，这十分合理，特别是此举可以明确帮助公众发出更多声音。
I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.
同时，我恳请大家为我伸张公正，请相信我做出此决定并非未经深思熟虑，也并非未考虑尽职公民与国家的关系；对我来说，沉默暗示着，不再为国尽职的同时，我对捍卫你们未来利益的热情不曾衰减，我仍对你们过去的爱戴满怀感激与敬意，但是我完全相信，该决定与二者仍不冲突。
The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.
迄今为止，你们两次行使选举权，号召我就任总统一职，我放弃个人想法，承担起责任，尊重了你们的意愿。我在任期间始终无法忘记离任的想法，希望能够尽早回到我依依不舍的退休生活。这种想法之强烈，以至于早在上次选举之前，我就准备了一篇演讲，打算告知各位；但当时我国外交事务正面临着困难的关键局面，加之我信任的人一致建议我留任，我才放弃了此想法。
I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.
我很高兴看到你们如此关切，无论心中还是表达，你们的个人追求与责任感、礼节感之间不再产生冲突，我相信，在目前我国的情况下，即使再希望我连任，大家也会允许我退休。
The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.
在我的印象中，我初次担此重任时就对此做过解释。在即将离任之际，我只能说，我作为一个能力欠缺的人，立足美好的出发点，已为执政管理做出力所能及的最大贡献。一开始，我并非不觉自身资历经验匮乏，或许大家更是如此认为，这一直使我越加妄自菲薄；逝者如斯夫，年老的我愈加发觉退休之必要，我也乐意退休。我很高兴，如若命运证明我的服务具有特殊价值，那也只是暂时的，我相信，即使抉择与谨慎使我离开政治舞台，我的爱国之情也不会褪去。
In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected.
在我公众生涯即将结束的这一刻，我情不自禁地想要表达我对亲爱祖国的由衷感谢，感谢国家赐予了我众多荣誉；更要感谢国家对我的坚定信任；还有国家给我的机遇，让我能忠心持续服务国家，以表达我对国家的深深爱慕，即使我心有余而力不足。如果我的服务为国家带来了好处，那希望能赢得你们的铭记赞扬，并在我们各界因狂热误入歧途时，在我们疑惑不解时，在命运造化愚弄时，能够作为可供你们参考的案例，我们持续追求成功，批判精神也会随之而起，你们的坚定支持是我们事业的支柱，也是我们实施计划的保证。
Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.
我对此坚信不疑，并将带着此信念随我入土，在死后继续此誓约，让上天不断赐予我们恩惠和吉兆；让我们的联邦和兄弟情谊至死不渝；让你们亲手书写的自由宪法神圣不可侵犯；让所有部门执行时都留下智慧与美德的印记；总而言之，让合众国人民在自由的庇佑下安居乐业，精明利用祝福，切心守护生活，美国人民会有幸将自由推广到全世界其他尚未获得自由的国家，赢得他们的赞赏、热爱和青睐。
Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.
或许，我该就此打住。但我对你们幸福的关切，不会随着我的生命而终结，在当下，我对危险出于本能的担忧，使我必须请你们深思、再请你们多多自我审视，这些观点是我仔细思索、大量观察后得出的，我认为它们对于美利坚民族的幸福长久至关重要。这些想法会给你自由选择的余地，因为你从中只会看到一位离别朋友给出的无私警示，毕竟我没有动机在给出的建议中加入个人偏袒。我也不会忘记，我大胆表达，是因为你们曾在另一个地方宽容接受了我的想法。
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
让你们的内心和对自由的热爱交织一起，我无需任何话语，也坚信自由在大家心中根深蒂固。
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
要想融合为一个民族，政府的团结一致也是极为重要。政府应当团结，因为政府是我们实现真正独立伟业的基础；是我们在国内安居乐业、在国外不受侵犯的保障；保你安全；助你成功；并捍卫你珍视的自由。但也可以预见，将来你们会承受很大痛苦，敌人会出于各种目的从各方面削弱你对此真理的信仰；因为你的信仰是政治立场的关键点，国内外敌人的枪炮会最先且一直瞄准它(虽然这种攻击一般隐蔽狡诈)，在这种关键时刻，你要正确认识到国民团结可以给集体和你个人带来多大的价值；你要对国家怀有亲切、与生俱来、不可动摇的感情；要习以为常地将国家作为自己政治安全与幸福生活的捍卫者；细心地守护她；无论发生什么都不背弃她，甚至连这种想法都不能产生；对任何试图分裂我们国家，或削弱我们各地联系的行为感到愤怒。
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.
为此，维护国家团结应得到你们的支持，也符合你们的利益。公民们，无论你生来是美国人，还是选择成为美国人，我们都生活在同一个国家，一个值得我们热爱的国家。美国人，这个称呼属于你们这些拥有国民身份的人，这个称呼要成为让爱国主义骄傲的正义称谓，而不要让它成为一个地域歧视词。忽视掉略微的差异，你们拥有同样的宗教信仰、习俗礼仪、生活习惯和政治原则。我们为同一个目标而斗争，且将共同取得胜利。你们现在拥有的独立和自由，就是靠你们集思广益、同舟共济、患难与共，最终齐心协力赢得的。
But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.
这些想法可能会刺激到你的敏感情绪，但它们依然比那些看似能让我们直接收益的想法更重要。我们可以从中看到维护我们联邦完整的最主要原因。
The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.
北方与南方可以自由往来，在法律下受同一个政府的平等保护，北方在贸易中看到了南方海运业带来的巨额资源、商业契机和制造业所需的稀有材料。与此同时，南方在往来中也从北方机构获益，让南方农业得以发展、商业扩大。北方的部分水手也开始在北方自己的贸易航道上工作，北方的海运业以其独特方式也在蓬勃发展；北方海运业以独特的方式，同样在助力我国海运业整体的发展，不过北方未来会保护其特有的航运方式不变。东部与西部也在进行类似往来，且东部的水陆交通已经得到持续稳定发展，东部也将进一步协助进口国外商品，出口我国制造业的产品。西部则从东部获得了支撑其发展和舒适的所需品，更重要的是，西部赖以生存的产品外销渠道，要归功于联邦东海岸各州的体量、影响力和未来海运实力的保护，各方在同一个牢不可破的经济共同体中，作为一个国家互相协作。
While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.
如此，我国各地区都可以直接体会到联邦的益处，各地拧成一股绳，众志成城之际必定可以发挥出更大力量，生产更多资源，相对而言，面对外来威胁时也更加安全，外国也不敢再频繁扰乱平静；最重要的，联邦可以调解各地的冲突，避免战争，我们周边的一些国家不受同一政府管理，就时常面临此困扰，仅他们对手的战船就够他们受得了，何况还有敌对外国联盟、附庸以及各种阴谋去刺激他们扩军竞赛。同样因此，他们还得设法避免军队过度壮大，无论在什么政体下，过于强大的军队都会对自由政体构成威胁，军国主义相当敌视共和制自由政体。在这方面讲，联邦即是自由政体的主要支柱，对彼此的爱促进你们保护彼此。
These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands.
这些思想可以说服任何有道德、有思想力的人：联邦政府的建立运作是爱国主义者们最主要的目标。如此广袤的领土，能否只处于同一个政府的领导下？让我们以实践解答。目前，仅仅推断是不够的。我们希望联邦的各地区辅助机构能够协助我们政府作为一个政体运转，我们很乐意去尝试。该政体值得我们去全面尝试。我国各地区建立联邦的意愿明显而强烈，虽然我们尚未证明联邦不切实际，但总有人找理由否定爱国者的想法，削弱联邦的联系纽带。
In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens?
思索扰乱联邦的原因时，我们发现了个严重问题，我国存在以地域差异来建立党派的现象，比如北方、南方、东海岸、西部；这种党派会大幅分裂各地的利益和观念。一个党派在自己区域内想获得支持，一个惯用方法就是歪曲抹黑其他地区的意念和目的。歪曲抹黑会让你产生嫉妒和痛苦的心理，并且这种心理很难抗拒；这种心理会让本应是兄弟的人形同陌路。最近我们以西的国家(指新西班牙)就吃到了这个教训；他们在最高行政部门的主持下谈判，才最终一致达成了令西班牙议会满意的和约，这就有力向全美国证明了部分人传播的“最高联邦政府和东海岸各州政府的政策会损害密西西比河流域各地的利益”这种说法是多么毫无依据；也证明了我们和英西两国签订的条约(指英美《杰伊协议》和美西《平克尼协议》)能够确保我们的外交关系，以保证国内的繁荣发展。我国能保存自己的优势，靠的不是联邦的智慧吗？如果有人试图挑拨离间兄弟，与外国势力相互勾结，联邦政府难道会无所作为吗？
To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.
要保证联邦的运转和效率，就必须有统一的政府。哪怕是再紧密的联盟也无法媲美联邦；任何联盟都不可避免地会出现失约和分歧。大家认识到这一点后，就不断把最初的法案加以改善，颁布了这部前所未有、无与伦比的联邦宪法，以有效解决大家关注的问题。联邦政府是我们选择建立的，是我们不受影响、不受威胁，经过百般思索后的自愿选择，政府的原则理念、权力分配方面完全自由，是安全与力量的结合体，且可以通过宪法修正案，这么一个政府值得你们的信任与拥护。尊重政府权威，遵守政府法律，配合政府措施是真正自由准则要求的义务。人民制定和修改宪法的权利是我们政体的基础。除非人民明确要求要求修改宪法，否则宪法只要存在，全体人民就都对其负有神圣义务。服从自己建立的政府是人民获得建立政府权利的前提。
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.
任何阻碍执法的行为，任何操纵和抵制合法政府审议和行动的团队组织，都将被视为对我国基本原则的破坏和致命威胁。大众里会有一小部分狡猾且野心勃勃的人，他们会拉帮结派，建立强大的党派武装；以党派的意志代替国家的意志；正因此，通过不同党派交替胜选，轮流执政，才能在其执政期间反映出一个党派的缺点和不妥，而总是同一批顾问为了互惠互利而共同制定的治国方案，是无法体现这一点的。
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
虽然我刚刚提到的组织团体现在可能还在回应人民的需求，但随着时代发展，事物变迁，这些组织会成为巨大威胁，狡猾奸诈、野心勃勃、毫无底线的人很可能会利用这些组织推翻人民主权，并集大权于一身，之后再摧毁这些协助自己建立非法统治的组织。
Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.
要保护你们的政府和现在的幸福生活，你们不仅须要坚定抵制与政府的敌对行为，还须要警惕那些会触动我国原则根基的所谓改革，无论其理由看似名正言顺。他们的其中一种攻击手段，可能就是通过修改宪法的形式，削弱我们体制的力量，从而逐步破坏一些不能直接推翻的制度。你们参与任何变革，都要牢记，确定政府的性质和确定其他任何制度一样，至少都需要时间和习惯；这是检验一个国家当前宪法真正倾向的最佳标准；要记住，如果仅凭假设和意见就肆意变革，那么不停的假设和意见就会让我们变革个不停；还要特别记住，在我们这样辽阔的国度里，要想有效地管理大家的共同利益，一个活力充沛的、并且能充分保障自由的政府是必不可少的。自由会选择这个合理分配调整权力的政府成为它的守护者。但如果政府过于软弱无力，无法制衡其他党派的力量，无法让国内每个人遵纪守法，无法保护人民的岁月静好、人权和财产，那么这个政府事实上只有徒有虚名而已。
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
我已经告诉了大家，我国有政党分裂的危险，尤其是当前各政党以地域差异为基础而成立的情况下。现在，我从更全面的角度，用最严肃的态度告诉你们这种党派思想的恶劣影响。
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
很不幸，这种思想出自我们的本性，扎根于人脑中最强烈的欲望。这种思想以不同形式存在于全世界政府中，或多或少遭到约束、控制和压制；但这些常见的党派思想，往往是党派自身的最大敌人。
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
各地党派交替执政，会激化党派之间的矛盾和复仇情绪，进而导致各国在各时代的惨烈悲剧，因此其本身就是一种专制主义。甚至最终会正式形成永久的专制统治。由此导致的混乱和悲剧会让人们倾向于寻求个人绝对权力来确保自身安全和冷静；而优胜党派更具才能、更幸运的领导人迟早会以因此倾向而自居高位，而他的脚下是共和自由的废墟。
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
就算不考虑这种极端情况（但我们依然不能完全将之抛诸脑后），但就其普遍持续的恶劣影响，聪慧的人民也有义务去抵制这种党派思想。
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
这类思想会割裂公众议会，削弱公共管理系统。其以站不住脚的嫉妒心理和虚张声势去煽动民众，点燃彼此之间的仇恨，甚至引发暴动和叛乱。其为外国渗透和腐败贿赂提供了可乘之机，外国势力可以借党派间的矛盾直接渗透入政府。自然而然地，一国的政策与意志也会受到外国制约。
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
有观点认为，自由国家中，各地党派能够有效制约政府，捍卫自由思想。这种观点在一定程度上是正确的；在君主制国家中，如若不得民心，那爱国主义便乐意看到党派思想肆意横行。但是在具有民主特质的自由选举制国家中，我们不能鼓励这种思想。从人的天性趋势来看，我们可以肯定，总会有人为了获益而鼓吹这种思想。过度鼓吹党派思想的威胁会持续存在，舆论当发挥力量去减小这一威胁。这是一团无法扑灭的火，因此需要大家一致警惕，防止其变为烈焰，否则它将不再带给我们温暖，反而会吞噬一切。
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.
还有很重要的一点，以自由国家人民的思维习惯，应当对政府官员进行监督，确保他们被限制在宪法的框架内，避免他们在行使权力时越权其他部门。这种越权思想旨在将所有部门的权力集中在一处，进而无论形成什么政府，其本质都是专制独裁。我们估计，相比较对权力的热爱，滥用权力的倾向更容易在人心中占据主导，因此我们更要相信自由思想。古今历史证明，在行使政治权力时，必须让权力互相制衡，将其分配到不同的人手中，让每个人都能保护公众利益不受他人损害；这些损害公众利益的人，有一部分就在我们国家，在我们眼皮底下。保护三权分立制度的重要性丝毫不亚于将其建立起。如果人民认为宪法在权力分配或者修改方面有任何不合理的地方，那么按照宪法规定，皆可以宪法修正案的形式予以纠正。但绝不能私自篡改宪法，虽然在我之前举的例子中，宪法皆造福于人民，但它同样是摧毁自由政府的惯用武器。一定要让宪法的好处远超滥用宪法获取部分暂时利益的坏处，这样才能一直保护我们大家的利益。
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
在所有走向繁荣的因素和习惯中，宗教与道德都是必不可少的支持。一个人若是破坏了人们幸福——这一人类和公民最重要职责的支柱，那么他绝不会被赞誉为爱国。政治家要和所有虔诚者一样去尊重珍护宗教道德。宗教道德与公众幸福的联系，哪怕是一本书也说不完。我们只需要简单问一句，如若公正的法庭缺失了宗教责任感，摒弃了司法调查的誓言，那么人民的财产、声誉和生命还能得到保障吗？那我们大胆假设一下，即使道德与宗教真的分割开来。那无论高等教育如何影响我们的思维结构，理性和经验也都不会让我们希望国家道德驱逐宗教原则。
It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
当然，道德是民选政府不可缺少的源泉。且这项准则或多或少地影响到了自由政府辖内的所有生命物种。真心拥护道德的人，怎会对试图动摇我国基础的行为视若无睹？
Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
改善教育机构，让知识普遍传播当作为首要目标。随着政府对公众舆论的影响力增大，政府应当引导公众舆论的启蒙性、进步性。
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it, avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.
我们要爱护公众财产，这是我国实力与安全的重要来源。保护财产的一种方式就是尽可能少地使用它，维护和平，避免额外支出，但也要记住，未雨绸缪、及时拨款也可让我们免于进一步支出，消灭威胁。我们不仅要避免额外开支，同样要避免负债累累，如若我们在不可避免的战争中积攒了债务，和平时期就一定要全力还清，不要将这些债务留给我们的后代。虽然民众的代表负责执行这些准则，但是公众舆论也要为此提供协助。记住，要帮助他们履行职务、偿还债务，我们就需要节流开源、获得收入；要获得收入，征税是免不掉的；谈起征税，多少为给大家造成一些不便和不满；这种固有的窘境与合适选择征税对象密不可分(要甄别哪些才是合适征税对象总是一件难事)，政府公正建设应坚决以此为动机，在公众急切需求时，我们出台获取采取财政收入的措施也应以此为动机。
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it - It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?
对所有国家遵都守诚意与正义；以和谐和友善对待所有人。宗教和道德要求我们这么做，莫非明智的政策不是同样如此要求吗？在不久后，我国将成为一个自由、先进的伟大国家，我们要作为一个胸怀无限正义与仁爱的民族，为全人类树立一个宽容新颖的榜样。随着世间万物的发展变迁，难道还有人怀疑我们坚定不移的计划无法取得足以弥补我们暂时失去的成果吗？难道上帝没有将我国的永久幸福与我们的道德联系到一起吗？起码，我们人性中的所有崇高品质都推动我们进行这一实践。如果我们失败了，这难道不是人性的低劣所造成的吗？
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty,of nations,has been the victim.
在执行这一计划时，最关键的便是，我们不能一直憎恶一部分国家，而对另外的一些国家抱有好感；而是要以公正友善的态度对待所有国家。一个习惯被仇恨和喜爱所蒙蔽的国家，在一定程度上沦为奴隶。这个国家沦为被爱恨情仇操控的奴隶，对他国的情感会让这个国家偏离本国的利益和使命。一国对他国的仇恨会更容易造成两国间因为小事而互相侮辱和伤害，在面临微不足道的小争端，会让此国变得顽固自大。如此，势必会爆发频繁的冲突，因仇恨引起旷日持久的残酷战争。此国在恶意与仇恨的驱使下，有时会被迫同其他国家开战，这与我们构想的最优政策是背道而驰。政府有时会煽动民族情绪，做出一些不理智的行为；还有些情况下，政府会利用民族仇恨，让其服务于自己出于荣誉、野心或其他邪恶动机而准备的战争计划。毁灭掉许多国家的和平与自由。
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliance of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
同样，一国对他国的狂热喜爱也会带来诸多弊端。一个人会支持他所喜爱的国家，幻想出我国与该国之间有着根本不存在的共同利益，并且会将该国对其他国家的仇恨灌输给我国，在该国陷入争端和战争之际，使得我国也会被拉下水，即使我国没有战争动机和参战理由。这种喜爱还会导致我国被迫对他国让步，使得我们放弃在他国的平等权益，放弃本该持有的权益，又在两国间激起嫉妒、恶意与报复的情绪，使得做出让步的我国受到遭受加倍打击；这种喜爱还会让某些别有用心的，或被腐化、欺骗的公民(他们爱自己喜爱的外国胜过爱祖国)背叛或牺牲我国利益，这些人背叛祖国后不仅不会遭人憎恶，反而会赢得赞誉。这些人表面上富有高尚的责任意识，赢得了公众舆论的大加赞赏，也可能被美化成迎合公众利益的热情，而实际上只是为他们自己愚蠢的野心、腐败和对外国的爱恋顺从披了一层皮而已。
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
此类外国势力数不清的手段，尤其是对外国的感情，特别需要正开明、独立的真正爱国者提高警惕。外国会有许多机会干涉我国党派、施以多种诱惑、误导公众舆论、削弱议会权威。弱小国家如此依附于强大国家，最后必将成为其仆从国。
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
自由民族应当时刻警惕提防外国势力的阴谋诡计，保持清醒(我的同胞们，我恳请你们相信我)，因为历史和经验已经证明，外国势力是共和制政府面临的最致命的敌人之一。我们需不偏不倚，才能使其发挥作用，否则我们的警惕不仅无法保护我们，反而成为外国势力的工具。对一国过度偏袒或厌恶，都会使我们只看到一方的威胁，而对另一方势力影响缺少警惕。当喜爱的外国通过手段和欺骗得到了人民的赞誉和信任，抵御该国影响的真正爱国者反而会很容易遭到质疑和厌恶。
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
我国处理对外事务的最主要准则是扩大我们之间的商贸联系，尽可能减少与他们的政治联系。以目前我们达成的协议来看，我们可以很好地履行这些协议。欧洲有一套基础利益体系，这与我国是无关的；或者说对于我国是过于遥远的联系。这套体系使欧洲时常爆发争论，但这些争论无关于我国关切的问题。也是因此，如果我国卷入欧洲政治事务，无论是与他们友好而结为同盟，还是敌对而发生冲突，都是不明智的。
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government,the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
我国远离他国，独处一方的地理位置使得我们可以走上一条独特的外交道路。如果我们在称职政府领导下，且仍联合为一个民族，我们不久即可迎来一段不受外界伤害的和平时期；我们可以采取这种外交姿态，使得我国在任何觉得需要的时候保持中立，赢得各国的尊重；届时好战国自知不可能征服我国时，便不敢对我国轻举妄动；我们是战是和，可以根据我国的利益，在正义引导下，交由议会决定。
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
何必放弃我们的地理位置优势？何必离开我们的土地而站到外国的领土上？何必让我国的命运与欧洲交织到一起，让我国的和平繁荣与欧洲的野心、竞争、利益、态度和反复无常产生联系？
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
我国真正的政策，是要避免与其他任何国家结为长期同盟；我是指，目前我们可以自由处理这一事项；而非是指我们会背弃现有的协议。我觉得这一条不仅适用于公共事务，还适用于私人事务，真诚永远是最好的对策。我重申一下，我们要充分遵守这些协议。但是，在我看来，在现有协议的基础上再额外添加任何条款，都是不必要且不明智的。
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
当权者应当适当建设国防事务以作防御准备，在遭遇紧急情况时，当然也可建立短期同盟来应对。
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
政策、人道和利益都要求我们与他国和谐自由交流。甚至我国的商业政策也应保持公平公正；我们既不寻求他国的特权特惠，也不赋予他国特权特惠；一切顺自然之道而行之；以温和方式扩大商业交流并使之多样化，而非强求；经双方交流意见后，建立最符合现状的正常商贸规则(借此明确我国商人的权利，让政府能够为商人提供支持，以建立稳定贸易)，但这些规则不能一成不变，也要能随着时代变迁，让我们视经验和情况决定是否修改或废止；要记住，一个国家指望他国无偿帮助自己简直愚不可及；正因此，该国必定会牺牲一部分独立性来换取自己想要的东西；记住，如若接受此类交换，本国不仅要为微小恩惠交换出等价的利益，还会因我们回报过少而被谴责为忘恩负义。没有比指望国与国之间真正友谊更愚蠢的错误了。经验会杀死这种幻想 ，正义自豪会摒弃这种幻想。
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
我的同胞们，我这位老朋友在向你们提供忠告时，不敢期望你们会如我所想的那样将其牢记于心中；我担心我的话会控制你们的正常感情，甚至阻止我国走上别国已证明有效的道路。但是，请允许我自夸自擂一下，我的忠告可能会偶尔带给你们一些益处；可能会缓解党派间的愤怒，会提醒你们注意外国阴谋，防范假爱国主义的骗局；这一期待，是对你们关切的回报，愿其能够助你们幸福生活。
How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.
在我当政期间，我多大程度上遵守了上述准则，以及我的公共记录和其他行为，都需要向你们和全世界公布。就我自己而言，我可以出自良心保证，起码我认为我始终遵守这些准则。
In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the twenty-second of April, I793, is the index of my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
谈及欧洲正在持续的战争，我在1793年4月22日宣告了我整个计划的索引。在得到你们和你们代表在国会两院的支持后，我便一直致力于实施中立举措，不受任何其他事物阻止或转移注意力。
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.
经过仔细商议，在我身边最优秀的顾问团帮助下，我十分高兴看到我国有权选择保持中立，出于我国使命和利益，我们都应当保持中立。在此之后，我就自己下定决心，要一直适当地坚定保卫我国中立地位。
The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all.
要尊重别人做此决定的权利，在当下场合无需细谈。我只想说，仅以我对此事的见解，我国的中立地位既然目前仍未遭到任何交战国否定，就意味着各国实际承认了我国的中立。
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.
保持中立可以单纯被理解为正义和人道赋予各国修复与他国关系、保持和平的职责，为达这一目的，各国皆可自由采取措施。
The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.
遵循此行为的动机最好出自你个人的思考和经验。我的主要动机便是尽可能为我国建立、完善新机构争取时间，并推动其不断改进，直至获得其所需的执行能力和协调能力，在我力所能及的范围内，达到对自己命运的掌握。
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.
虽然在回顾我的任期举措时，我自认为没有故意犯错，但是我深知自身缺陷过多，实在不认为自己没犯过错。无论我犯过什么错，我真诚恳请上帝消除或减轻我错误带来的弊端。我也希望祖国以后会一直宽容看待我的错误；考虑到我以真诚热情献身服务祖国45年，请勿将我的无能和过错常挂在嘴边，让它们去吧，正如我即将回到退休庄园一样。
Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent lovetowards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself andhis progenitors for several generations, l anticipate with pleasing expectation thatretreat in which l promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment ofpartaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws undera free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as ltrust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
我在此方面和其他方面一样，皆依赖于祖国的仁慈，我深爱祖国，受之鼓舞，我视这片土地为我和我前几代祖先的故土，这爱国之情便合乎情理。我满怀乐观期待离去，我相信我的同胞能在自由政府和严明法律治下安居乐业，这是我最渴望实现的目标，也是对我们有福同享，有难同当，患难与共的回报。
Geo. Washington.
乔治·华盛顿
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