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For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murder which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States.
不论这些人对我们各州居民犯下何等严重的谋杀罪,他可用加审判来庇护他们,让他们逍遥法外;
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
他可以切断我们同世界各地的贸易;
For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
未经我们同意便向我们强行征税;
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;
在许多案件中剥夺我们享有陪审制的权益;
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses;
以莫须有的罪名把我们押送海外受审;
For abolishing the free systems of English laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule these Colonies;
他在一个邻省废除了英国法律的自由制度,在那里建立专制政府,扩大其疆域,使其立即成为一个样板和合适的工具,以便向这里各殖民地推行同样的专制统治;
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;
他取消我们的许多特许状,废除我们最珍贵的法律并从根本上改变我们各州政府的形式;
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
他终止我们立法机构行使权力,宣称他们自己拥有在任何情况下为我们制定法律的权力。
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
他们放弃设在这里的政府,宣称我们已不属他们保护之列,并向我们发动战争。
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
他在我们的海域里大肆掠夺,蹂躏我们的沿海地区,烧毁我们的城镇,残害我们人民的生命。
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely parallel in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
他此时正在运送大批外国雇佣兵,来从事其制造死亡、荒凉和暴政的勾当,其残忍与卑劣从一开始就连最野蛮的时代也难以相比,他已完全不配当一个文明国家的元首。
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
他强迫我们在公海被他们俘虏的同胞拿起武器反对自己的国家,使他们成为残杀自己亲友的刽子手,或使他们死于自己亲友的手下。
He has excited domestic insurrection amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
他在我们中间煽动内乱,并竭力挑唆残酷无情的印地安蛮子来对付我们边疆的居民,而众所周知,印地安人作战的准则是不分男女老幼、是非曲直,格杀勿论。
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petition have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
在遭受这些压迫的每一阶段,我们都曾以最谦卑的言辞吁请予以纠正。而我们一次又一次的情愿,却只是被报以一次又一次的伤害。一个君主,其品格被他的每一个只有暴君才干的出的行为所暴露时,就不配君临自由的人民。
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpation, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them., as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
我们并不是没有想到我们英国的弟兄。他们的立法机关想把无理的管辖权扩展到我们这里来,我们时常把这个企图通知他们。我们也曾把我们移民来这里和在这里定居的情况告诉他们。我们曾恳求他们天生的正义感和雅量,念在同种同宗的分上,弃绝这些掠夺行为,因为这些掠夺行为难免会使我们之间的关系和来往中断。可他们对这种正义和同宗的呼声也同样充耳不闻。因此,我们不得不宣布脱离他们,以对待世界上其他民族的态度对待他们:同我交战者,就是敌人;同我和好者,即为朋友。
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled , appealing to the supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United States Colonies and Independent States; that they are absolved by from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
因此我们这些在大陆会议上集会的美利坚合众国的代表们,以各殖民地善良人民的名义,并经他们授权,向世界最高裁判者申诉,说明我们的严重意向,同时郑重宣布:我们这些联合起来的殖民地现在是,而且按公理也应该是,独立自由的国家;我们对英国王室效忠的全部义务,我们与大不列颠王国之间大不列颠一切政治联系全部断绝,而且必须断绝。作为一个独立自由的国家,我们完全有权宣战、缔和、结盟、通商和采取独立国家有权采取的一切行动。我们坚定地信赖神明上帝的保佑,同时以我们的生命、财产和神圣的名誉彼此宣誓来支持这一宣言。
【说明】
杰斐逊起草了《独立宣言》的第一稿,富兰克林等人又进行了润色。大陆会议对此稿又进行了长时间的、激烈的辩论,最终作出了重大的修改。特别是在佐治亚和卡罗来纳代表们的坚持下,删去了杰斐逊对英王乔治三世允许在殖民地保持奴隶制和奴隶买卖的有力谴责。这一部分的原文是这样的:
他的人性本身发动了残酷的战争,侵犯了一个从未冒犯过他的远方民族的最神圣的生存权和自由权;他诱骗他们,并把他们运往另一半球充当奴隶,或使他们惨死在运送途中。
托马斯•杰斐逊(1743-1826),生于弗吉尼亚的一个富裕家庭。曾就读于威廉-玛丽学院。1767年成为律师,1769年当选为弗吉尼亚下院议院。他积极投身于独立运动之中,并代表弗吉尼亚出席大陆会议。他曾两次当选弗吉尼亚州长。1800年当选美国总统。
杰斐逊在为自己的墓碑而作的墓志铭中这样写到:这里埋葬着托马斯.杰斐逊,美国《独立宣言》的作者,弗吉尼亚宗教自由法规的制定者和弗吉尼亚大学之父。
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