VOA慢速英语2014 John Quincy Adams, a Man Raised to Serve His Country 一个毕生都在服务他的国家的人 - 约翰·昆西·亚当斯（在线收听）

John Quincy Adams, a Man Raised to Serve His Country 一个毕生都在服务他的国家的人 - 约翰·昆西·亚当斯

From VOA Learning English, welcome to The Making of a Nation, our weekly program of American history for people learning English. I’m Steve Ember.

John Quincy Adams was sworn in as president of the United States on March 4, 1825. A big crowd came to the Capitol building for the ceremony. All the leaders of government were there: senators, congressmen, Supreme Court justices and James Monroe. Monroe’s two terms as president were ending.

1825年3月4日，美国前总统约翰·昆西·亚当斯（John Quincy Adams）宣誓就职，成千上万的民众来到国会大厦前聆听总统的就职演说。各个部门的领导人，参议员、国会议员、最高法院法官、甚至前总统詹姆斯·门罗都来到了现场。此次演讲也标志着门罗作为两届美国总统的任期结束了。

President-elect Adams focused his inaugural address on unity. Adams said the Constitution and the representative democracy of the United States had proved a success. The nation was free and strong and stretched across the continent, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

就职演说时，亚当斯表示将把重点放在了联合上。他说美国宪法和代议制民主证明是成功的，这是个自由和强大的国家，它从大西洋一直延伸到太平洋横跨了整个美洲大陆。

He noted that during the past 10 years, political party differences had eased. So now, he said, it was time for the people to settle their differences and make a truly national government.

他指出，在过去的十年中各个政党逐渐消除了他们之间的政治分歧，所以现在是人们携起手来建立一个真正的联合政府的时候了。

Adams closed his speech by recognizing that he was a minority president. No candidate had received a majority of electoral votes. So the House of Representatives had to make the decision. The House chose Adams as the next president. He told the crowd gathered at the Capitol that he needed the help of everyone in the years to come.

在演讲结束时，亚当斯提到在此次竞选中，包括他在内没有任何一名候选人的票数过半，所以最后不得不由众议院作出决定，而众议院最后的决定是他成为下届总统。他告诉聚集在国会大厦前的人们，为了迎接美好未来，他需要每一个人的努力。

Presidents-elect used to give their inaugural address before their swearing in. So, after his speech, John Quincy Adams took the oath of office that made him the sixth president of the United States.

按照传统，新当选的总统通常在宣誓就职之前发表就职演说，所以在演说之后，亚当斯正式宣誓就职，成为第六任美国总统。

His father was John Adams, the second president. John Quincy’s mother, Abigail, made sure he received an excellent education.

他的父亲是美国第二任总统约翰亚当斯（John Adams），而他的母亲阿比盖尔让他享受了良好的教育

Historian Harlow Giles Unger wrote a biography of John Quincy Adams – “Quinzy” incidentally is how the family pronounced it. The historian tells this story about Abigail Adams and her son in 1775 in Massachusetts during the Revolutionary War.

历史学家Harlow Giles Unger在他给亚当斯写的传记“Quinzy”中顺便提到他的家庭如此看待他所受教育的重要性。历史学家提到在1775年独立战争期间，阿比盖尔和他的儿子在Massachusetts是如何度过的。

“When her first-born son John, John Quincy, was seven, they heard the cannon fire in the distance and they went up to the top of the hill behind their farm house and could look across Boston Harbor and see the Battle of Bunker Hill. And she took her boy by the hand and they went back down to the house and she started melting down the family pewter, with John Quincy helping her, and making musket balls for the American revolutionary troops.”

当她的第一个孩子john quincy7岁时，她感觉到战火已近在咫尺，所以他们就跑到了农场后面那座山的山顶上，在那里他们能穿过Boston Harbor看到Bunker Hill战役。她抱着孩子回到家，在Quincy的帮助下，开始通过融化家里的铅锡合金来制作滑膛枪的子弹，从而帮助美国独立战争的军队。

Abigail and John Adams were strong patriots. They were one of the founding families of America. Harlow Giles Unger says Abigail Adams raised John Quincy to serve his country.

Abigail和John Adams都是忠实的爱国者，他们也是成立第一批美国家庭的人。Harlow Giles Unger说是Abigail将Quincy培养成为了祖国的栋梁。

“She told her son that if you do not grow up to be a great leader of this country, it will be because of your own laziness and obstinacy. She and her husband, John Adams, at that point decided to raise their son to be the president of the United States.”

“她告诉她的儿子，懒惰和固执是你将来成为国家领导人的最大障碍。她和丈夫在那时已经决定将他们的孩子培养成美国总统了。”

As a boy, John Quincy Adams learned to speak at least four languages and read Greek and Latin. He studied Shakespeare’s plays. He traveled in Europe. He worked with his father in American consulates and embassies.

当Quincy还是一个孩子的时候，他已经能说4中语言同时能阅读希腊文和拉丁文。他精通莎翁的戏剧，游历欧洲，并同他的父亲一起在美国使领馆工作。

He graduated from Harvard and was working as a lawyer by the age of 23.

23岁那年，他从哈佛毕业同时成为了一名律师。

“He was a brilliant, brilliant young boy and man.”

“不论在孩童时代还是长大成人后，他都是出类拔萃的。”

For about 25 years, Adams held mostly appointed jobs. He was ambassador to the Netherlands, Germany, Russia and Britain. He helped lead the negotiations that ended the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. And he served eight years as secretary of state.

在之后的25年中，亚当斯从事的大多是委派性的工作。他是荷兰、德国、俄罗斯和英国的大使，他帮助开展了美英双方停止1812年战争的会谈，他还当了8年的美国国务卿。

Adams spent most of his career working in public service. Harlow Giles Unger says he could be impatient, especially with lawmakers.

亚当斯将他的大部分职业生涯献给了公共服务事业。Harlow Giles Unger说亚当斯有时候也会表现得极其没耐心，尤其是他面对法律制定者的时候。

“He despised most of the politicians he met in Congress because he found them to be ignorant and self-serving, with no sense of patriotism and sense of obligation to the nation.”

“他鄙视在国会的大部分政客，因为他发现这些人都是极度傲慢和自私的，并且对国家没有丝毫的责任感和爱国情怀。”

John Quincy Adams did not care for political battles. When he became president, he tried to bring his political opponents and the different parts of the country together in his cabinet. His opponents, however, refused to serve. And, although his cabinet included southerners, he did not really have the support of the South.

亚当斯对政治斗争漠不关心。他当选总统后，试图将他的政治对手和不同地区的人们一起选进他的内阁，但他的对手拒绝了他的邀请。尽管在他的内阁中有来自南部的成员，但他并不能真正得到南部人民的支持。

In his first message to Congress, President Adams described his ideas about the national government. The chief purpose of the government, he said, was to improve the lives of the people it governed. To do this, he offered a national program of building roads and canals. He also proposed a national university and a national scientific center.

在亚当斯总统给国会的第一条信息中，他描述了他对国家政府的构想，他说政府的首要目的是就是提高它管辖地区的人民的生活水平，他制定了修建公路和沟渠的计划来实现他的构想。同时，他还建议建立一所国家大学和国家科研中心。

Adams said Congress should not be limited only to making laws to improve the nation's economic life. He said it should make laws to improve the arts and sciences, too.

亚当斯说国会不应该仅限于制定法律来提高国家的经济，还应相应制定在艺术和科学方面的法律。

Many people of the West and South did not believe that the Constitution gave the federal government the power to do all these things. They believed that these powers belonged to the states. Their representatives in Congress rejected Adams’ proposals.

但是很多位于西部和南部的国会代表反对亚当斯的提议，因为他们不相信是宪法赋予了联邦政府权力来做这些事，他们认为权力来自于国家。

Harlow Giles Unger says some of the disagreements during Adams’ presidency helped start the American Civil War more than 30 years later, in 1861.

Harlow Giles Unger表示很多是亚当斯当政时期的意见分歧挑起了1861年的美国内战而不是30年后。

“The country was now splitting. The South, most of the South, had never accepted the Constitution as such. The Constitution did away with state sovereignty, but many Americans never accepted that, and especially in the South.”

“国家现在正在分裂，美国南部的人们好像从来就没有接受过宪法。宪法与国家主权有着紧密的联系，但是很多美国人，尤其是南方的美国人从来就没有承认过这一点。

The political picture in the United States began to change during the administration of John Quincy Adams. His opponents won control of both houses of Congress in the elections of 1826.

政治的天平在亚当斯执政期间发生了变化，他的对手在1826年的大选中赢得了国会两院的控制权。

Adams’ opponents called themselves Democrats. They supported Andrew Jackson and wanted him to win the next presidential election.

亚当斯的对手把自己称为民主主义者。他们支持Andrew Jackson并希望他赢得下一次大选。

Democrats needed the support of both the West and the South to elect Jackson. So they proposed a bill that appeared to help the West.

民主主义者们需要西方和南方对Jackson的支持，所以他们提出了一项有利于西部的法案。

The bill involved import taxes. A number of western states wanted duties on industrial goods imported from other countries. The purpose was to protect their own industries.

这项法案包括进口关税，西部各州想要收取其他国家工业产品的进口关税，目的就是为了保护他们自己的工业。

Southern states, however, opposed the import duties. They produced no industrial goods that needed protection. They argued that the Constitution did not give the government in Washington the right to approve such taxes.

但是一些南部的州反对这项提案，因为他们生产的工业产品都无需保护，他们认为宪法没有赋予国家政府同意征收这样税务的权利。

The Democrats expected Congress to defeat the bill they proposed. They thought the West would be grateful that the Democrats had tried to help them. And the South would be happy that there would be no import taxes.

民主主义者们希望国会能抵制他们提出的法案。这样西部各州就会对民主主义者试图帮助他们而心存感激，而南部各州也很乐意看到不追加进口关税。

But to the Democrats' surprise, many congressmen from the Northeast joined with lawmakers from the West to support the bill. They did so even though the bill would harm industries in the Northeast. The Northerners wanted to keep the idea of protective trade taxes alive.

但出乎这些人意料的是，很多北部州的国会议员支持西部的这项提案，尽管这会伤及北部工业。他们想使保护贸易关税这项法案实行下去。

The bill passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This left President Adams with a difficult decision. Should he sign it into law? Or should he veto it?

法案在参众两院同时通过，这就给亚当斯总统设置了一个难题——是否将该提案写入宪法？

If he signed the bill, it would show he believed that the Constitution allowed protective duties. That decision would create even more opposition to him in the South. If he vetoed it, then he would lose support in the West and Northeast. Adams signed the bill. But he made clear that Congress was fully responsible for it.

如果他签订提案，这就表示他同意宪法允许保护关税，这样就会使南部他的反对者急剧增加。如果他否决提案，他就会失去西部和北部的支持。最后，亚当斯签订了提案，但他澄清国会对此事将负全部责任。

Democrats in Congress made other attempts to weaken support for Adams. For example, they claimed that he was misusing government money. They tried to show that he, and his father before him, had become rich from government service.

国会中的民主主义者不断企图减少人们对亚当斯的支持。比如，他们声称亚当斯滥用公款，并试图证明亚当斯和他的父亲利用政府福利发家。

Others accused him of giving government jobs to his supporters. This charge was false. Top administration officials had urged Adams to give government jobs only to men who were loyal to him. But Adams had refused. He felt that as long as someone had done nothing wrong, he should continue in his job.

其他人指责亚当斯将政府工作给予他的支持者，这项指控是无稽之谈。官方高级管理者曾鼓励亚当斯将政府工作交给那些忠于他的人，但亚当斯认为只要这些人没做错事，他们就不应当丢到工作。

During his four years as president, Adams removed 12 people from government jobs. In each case, the person had failed to do his work or had done something criminal.

在他4年的总统任期内，亚当斯一共开除过12名政府工作人员，在每个案件中，这些人不是因为没有完成工作就是犯了罪。

Adams often gave jobs to people who did not support him politically. He believed it was wrong to give a person a job just for political reasons. Many of Adams' supporters could not understand. They had worked hard to get him elected. Their support for him cooled.

亚当斯经常将工作交给那些在政治上并不支持他的人，他认为只凭借政治原因就给与人们工作是不正确的。很多亚当斯的支持者很不理解，他们努力的工作来支持他选举，得到的却是冷酷。

Historian Harlow Giles Unger says John Quincy Adams was never able to meet the high expectations many had for him. 

历史学家Harlow Giles Unger说亚当斯从来就没有达到他的支持者的高期望值。

“His presidency was a complete failure. He was able to accomplish nothing.”

“他的政策是彻底失败的，他几乎一事无成。”

The political battle between Adams' Republican Party and Jackson's Democrats remained bitter. Perhaps the worst fighting took place in the press. Each side had its own newspaper for support. The Daily National Journal supported the administration. The United States Telegraph supported Andrew Jackson.

亚当斯的共和党和杰克逊的民主党之间的政治斗争愈演愈烈，也许最惨烈的争斗是在报纸上。他们每个党派都有支持自己的报刊，每日国家杂志支持执政党，而美国邮报倾向于Andrew Jackson。

At first, the pro-administration newspaper called for national unity and an end to personal attacks. Then things changed. The paper had to defend against charges of political wrongdoing within Adams’ party. It needed to turn readers away from these problems. So it printed a pamphlet that had been used against Andrew Jackson during an election campaign.

最初，偏向政府派的报纸呼吁全国联合和停止对个人的攻击。不久局势变化了，报纸不得不抵制那些对亚当斯政党的错误政策提出的指控的机构。这需要将读者的注意力从那些政策上引开，所以在大选期间，他们专门制作了反对Andrew Jackson的小册子。

The pamphlet accused Jackson of many bad things. The most damaging part involved the wife of another man. That will be our story next week.  

这些小册子给出了Jackson很多反面信息，其中最重要的一条就是他的妻子给他带了绿帽子，这将是我们下周的故事了。