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REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT A LINCOLN BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C.
11:47 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Pease, be seated. Thank you very much. Madam Speaker, Leader Reid, members of Congress, dear friends, former colleagues, it is a great honor to be here -- a place where Lincoln served, was inaugurated, and where the nation he saved bid him a last farewell. As we mark the bicentennial of our 16th President's birth, I cannot claim to know as much about his life and works as many who are also speaking today, but I can say that I feel a special gratitude1 to this singular figure who in so many ways made my own story possible -- and in so many ways made America's story possible.
It is fitting that we are holding this celebration here at the Capitol, for the life of this building is bound ever so closely to the times of this immortal2 President. Built by artisans and craftsmen3, but also immigrants and slaves -- it was here, in the rotunda4, that Union soldiers received help from a makeshift hospital; it was downstairs, in the basement, that they were baked bread to give them strength; and it was in the Senate and House chambers5 where they slept at night and spent some of their days.
What those soldiers saw when they looked on this building was a very different sight than the one we see today, for it remained unfinished until the end of the war. The laborers6 who built the dome7 came to work wondering each day whether that would be their last; whether the metal they were using for its frame would be requisitioned for the war and melted down into bullets. But each day went by without any orders to halt construction, and so they kept on working and kept on building.
When President Lincoln was finally told of all the metal being used here, his response was short and clear: That is as it should be. The American people needed to be reminded, he believed, that even in a time of war, the work would go on; the people's business would continue; that even when the nation itself was in doubt, its future was being secured; and that on that distant day, when the guns fell silent, a national capitol would stand, with a statue of freedom at its peak, as a symbol of unity8 in a land still mending its divisions.
It is this sense of unity, this ability to plan for a shared future even at a moment where our nation was torn apart, that I reflect on today. And while there are any number of moments that reveal that particular side of this extraordinary man, Abraham Lincoln -- that particular aspect of his leadership -- there's one that I'd like to share with you today.
In the war's final weeks, aboard Grant's flagship, The River Queen, President Lincoln was asked what was to be done with the rebel armies once General Lee surrendered. With victory at hand, Lincoln could have sought revenge. He could have forced the South to pay a steep price for their rebellion. But despite all the bloodshed and all the misery9 that each side had exacted upon the other, and despite his absolute certainty in the rightness of the cause of ending slavery, no Confederate soldier was to be punished, Lincoln ordered. They were to be treated, as he put it, "liberally all round." What Lincoln wanted was for Confederate troops to go back home and return to work on their farms and in their shops. He was even willing, he said, to "let them have their horses to plow10 and ¼ their guns to shoot crows with."
That was the only way, Lincoln knew, to repair the rifts11 that had torn this country apart. It was the only way to begin the healing that our nation so desperately12 needed. What Lincoln never forgot, not even in the midst of civil war, was that despite all that divides us -- north and south, black and white -- we were, at heart, one nation and one people, sharing a bond as Americans that could bend but would not break.
And so even as we meet here today, in a moment when we are far less divided than in Lincoln's day, but when we are once again debating the critical issues of our time -- and debating them sometimes fiercely -- let us remember that we are doing so as servants of the same flag, as representatives of the same people, and as stakeholders in a common future. That is the most fitting tribute we can pay -- the most lasting13 monument we can build -- to that most remarkable14 of men, Abraham Lincoln. Thank you. (Applause.)
总统：谢谢。各位，请坐。非常感谢……能够来到这里非常荣幸——这是林肯服务，就职和告别的地方。在纪念美国第16届总统诞辰200周年的日子，我不敢说我对林肯的工作和生活有多么了解，但是我可以说，在许多方面我对林肯非常感激，他让我自己的梦想成了现实——在许多方面，他使美国的历史成了可能。
我们在国会大厦举行庆祝仪式非常合适，因为这座建筑的生命和这位不朽的总统的时代非常接近。国会大厦由艺术家和工匠建造，但也是由移民和奴隶建造——就在这个圆形大厅里，联盟士兵收到临时医院的帮助；在楼下，在地下室里，他们烘烤面包给士兵提供力量；在参议院和众议院内，他们夜晚休息，睡眠，在这里度过了许多天。
当时士兵看到的建筑和今天的景象截然不同，因为战争结束时，建筑还没有完成。建筑圆屋顶的工人们每天都在想，这会不会是最后一天，他们用来建造框架的金属会不会由于战争需要被征走，铸成子弹。但是一天又一天过去了，他们没有收到任何停止建筑的命令，所以他们继续工作，继续建筑。
当最终林肯得知这里所使用的金属时，他的反应非常简单明了：这是应该的。他相信，美国人民需要被提醒，即使在战争时期，工作仍要继续；人们的生意要继续；即使国家面临问题，仍要保证他的未来；在那个遥远的日子，当枪声不再，国会大厦将屹立起来，顶峰将要建造自由石像，象征着一个长期分裂的国家再次团结起来。
这就是团结的意义，在国家分裂的时候仍然想到国家的未来。有很多不寻常的时刻可以反映这个成就卓越的人——他出色的领导能力——我今天想跟大家分享的就是这个。
在战争的最后几周，登陆Grant舰之后，士兵向林肯请示怎样处置李将军当初降伏的叛军。胜利在握，林肯完全可以选择报复。他可以让叛军为自己的叛变行为付出惨痛的代价。但是虽然双方有着血海深仇，虽然他坚定信念一定要解放努力，他却下令，不惩罚任何同盟的士兵。他们受到宽大处理。林肯希望的是联盟军队能够回家，继续在农场和商店里工作。他说，他甚至愿意让他们带回自己的马去耕地，带回四分之一的枪支去射乌鸦。
林肯知道，这是唯一能够挽回国家分裂的趋势的办法。这是我们国家亟需的治疗方法。即使在内战期间，林肯也从来没有忘记，即使南北分裂，黑白分裂，在我们的心里，我们仍然是一个国家，一个民族，我们都是美国人，这一点永远不会变。
所以，今天我们在这里相聚，比林肯时代更加团结，但是当我们再次争论我们时代的关键问题时——在我们进行激烈争论时——让我们记住，我们生活在同一面国旗下，我们是同一群人民的代表，我们面临着同样的未来。这就是我们能提供的最好的颂词——我们能够建造的最持久的瞬间——献给最卓越的美国人，亚伯拉罕-林肯。谢谢。
收听单词发音 |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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craftsmen
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| n. 技工 | |
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rotunda
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| n.圆形建筑物；圆厅 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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rifts
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| n.裂缝( rift的名词复数 )；裂隙；分裂；不和 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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