LESSON 102

IMPORTANCE OF THE UNION

联邦的重要性

Mr. President: I am conscious of having detained you and the Senate much too long. I was drawn into the debate with no previous deliberation, such as is suited to the discussion of so grave and important a subject. But it is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have not been willing to suppress the utterance of its spontaneous sentiments. I can not, even now, persuade myself to relinquish it, without expressing once more my deep conviction, that, since it respects nothing less than the union of the states, it is of most vital and essential importance to the public happiness.

I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues, in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and, although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness.

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counselor in the affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed.

While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that, I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood.

Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured—bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as, What is all this worth? nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first, and Union afterwards—but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart—Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!

—Daniel Webster.

【中文阅读】

总统先生，我觉得耽搁您和参议院太久了。未及深思熟虑我便卷进了这场争论，如此唐突唯恐自己不适合讨论如此严肃和重要的话题。但这是一个我思量许久的话题，我不愿意克制情感，刻意不说出自己的意见。甚至现在，我亦不能说服自己放弃这个念头，不将内心的坚定信仰和盘托出，因为我坚信各州应该结成联邦，对于民众福祉而言这是必不可少且至关重要的。

先生，我在此公开声称，在到目前为止我的职业生涯里，一直把整个国家的繁荣和荣誉，把保持我们的合众国国体看得很重。人民生活安宁，在国外受到尊重。这应该归功于联邦；人民得到恩惠，这也要归功于联邦；只有通过对品性道德和伦理原则的严格规范，经历灾难的磨砺，我们才能建立合众国。在财政混乱、商业凋敝和信誉破产的必然结果里，我们能看到造成这种灾难局面的根源。在联邦的有益影响下，这些巨大的利益所在很快就会从死亡的边缘焕发出生机。在结成联邦的每一年里到处可见它的功用和带给这块土地赐福的证据。尽管我们的国土越来越大，越来越辽阔，我们的民众越来越向远方开拓，但是他们并没有脱离它的保护和益处。对我们所有人而言，它已经成了国家、社会和个人福祉的丰富泉源。

先生，我不允许自己的目光越过合众国，去寻觅隐藏在后面黑暗处的东西。当将我们连接在一起的纽带断成碎片时，我也不会厚颜无耻地掂量保持自由的可能性有多大。我不习惯将自己悬于悬崖上，用我的短浅目光和浅薄来审视是否有分裂的危险，探测下面深渊的到底有多深。在这个政府的各项事务上我也不会将其视为可以放心的顾问，尤其是他的思想存在危险，他考虑的不是合众国如何才能更好地保全，而是当合众国瓦解和毁灭时人民如何才能苟延残喘。

当合众国长久地延续下去时，对我们和我们的孩子而言，在我们眼前展现的是激动人心的美好前景。放眼未来，我致力的不是透过那层帷幕。惟愿在我们这一代，至少幕布不会拉起来。在我看来，绝不会将后面隐藏的东西大白于天下。最终，当我凝神注视时，太阳已经失去光辉，但愿我看到的不是它照耀昔日辉煌的合众国那破碎和不名誉的碎片，不是被割裂的、不和谐和卷入冲突的合众国，不是出租给国民公敌或浸透了兄弟鲜血的国土。

让他们衰弱和游移的目光或多或少地停留在共和国那非常漂亮的旗帜上吧，现在这面旗帜在世界各地已经为人所知，受到尊敬，而且还将继续高扬下去，它所到之处战无不克，战利品无数，星条旗上没有一道条纹斑驳或者受到玷污，没有一颗星暗淡无光——强调的是它不会受到如此卑鄙的质问的座右铭，所有这一切意义何在？不是其他带有欺骗性和愚蠢的箴言，先有自由，才有合众国——但是，闪耀着光辉的这几个字传遍每个地方，在海上、在陆地上飘扬，还在整个苍穹下的每一阵风中，至于其他观点，对于每一个真正的美国良心来说都是珍贵的——自由和联邦，现在和将来，结成一体不分离！

（丹尼尔•韦伯斯特）