《独立宣言》

　　IN CONGRESS JULY 41776

　　1776年7月4日，国会

　　THEUNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERAICA

　　《美利坚合众国十三个州的一致宣言》

　　When in thecourse of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve thepolitical bands which have connected them with another and to assume among thepowers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws Natureand Nature’s God entitle them a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requiresthat they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

　　在人类事务的进程中，当一个民族必须解除同另一个民族的政治联系，并按照自然和上帝赋予他们的法则，以独立平等的身份，立于世界列国之林时，出于对人类舆论的尊重，必须把驱使他们独立的原因予以宣布。

　　We hold thesetruths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they areendowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that they are amongthese are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

　　我们认为下述真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主赋予他们若干不可让与的权利，其中包括生存权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。

　　That tosecure these rights governments are instituted among them deriving their justpower from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of governmentbecomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or toabolish it and to institute new government laying its foundation on suchprinciples and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem mostlikely to effect their safety and happiness.

　　为了保障这些权利，人们才在他们中间建立政府，而政府的正当权利，则是经被统治者同意授予的。任何形式的政府一旦对这些目标的实现起破坏作用时，人民便有权予以更换或废除，以建立一个新的政府。新政府所依据的原则和组织其权利的方式，务使人民认为唯有这样才最有可能使他们获得安全和幸福。

　　Prudenceindeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changedfor light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown thatmankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to rightthemselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when along train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism it is their right itis their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards fortheir future security.

　　若真要审慎的来说，成立多年的政府是不应当由于无关紧要的和一时的原因而予以更换的。过去的一切经验都说明，任何苦难，只要尚能忍受，人类还是情愿忍受，也不想为申冤而废除他们久已习惯了的政府形式。然而，当始终追求同一目标的一系列滥用职权和强取豪夺的行为表明政府企图把人民至于专制暴政之下时，人民就有权也有义务去推翻这样的政府，并为其未来的安全提供新的保障。

　　Such has beenthe patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity whichconstrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of thepresent King of Great Britain is usurpations all having in direct tyranny over these States. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candidworld.

　　这就是这些殖民地过去忍受苦难的经过，也是他们现在不得不改变政府制度的原因。当今大不列颠王国的历史，就是屡屡伤害和掠夺这些殖民地的历史，其直接目标就是要在各州之上建立一个独裁暴政。为了证明上述句句属实，现将事实公诸于世，让公正的世人作出评判。

　　He hasrefused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the publicgood.

　　他拒绝批准对公众利益最有益、最必需的法律。

　　He hasforbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importanceunless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; andwhen so suspended he has utterly neglected to attend them.

　　他禁止他的殖民总督批准刻不容缓、极端重要的法律，要不就先行搁置这些法律直至征得他的同意，而这些法律被搁置以后，他又完全置之不理。

　　He hasrefused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of peopleunless those people would relinquish the right of representation in theLegislature a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

　　他拒绝批准便利大地区人民的其他的法律，除非这些地区的人民情愿放弃自己在立法机构中的代表权;而代表权对人民是无比珍贵的，只有暴君才畏惧它。

　　He has calledtogether legislative bodies at places unusual uncomfortable and distant fromthe depository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing theminto compliance with his measures.

　　他把各州的立法委员召集到一个异乎寻常、极不舒适而又远离他们的档案库的地方去开会，其目的无非是使他们疲惫不堪被迫就范。

　　He hasdissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmnesshis invasionon the rights of the people.

　　他一再解散各州的众议院，因为后者坚决反对他侵犯人民的权利。

　　He hasrefused for along time after such dissolution to cause others to be elected;whereby the legislative powers incapable of annihilation have returned to thepeople at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposedto all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsion within.

　　他在解散众议院之后，又长期拒绝另选他人，于是这项不可剥夺的立法权便归由普通人民来行使，致使在这其间各州仍处于外敌入侵和内部骚乱的种种危险之中。

　　He hasendeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purposeobstructing the laws of naturalizing of foreigners; refusing to pass others toencourage their migration hither and raising the condition of newappropriations of lands.

　　他力图阻止各州增加人口，为此目的，他阻挠外国人入籍法的通过，拒绝批准其他鼓励移民的法律，并提高新分配土地的条件。

　　He hasobstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent of laws forestablishing judiciary powers.

　　他拒绝批准建立司法权力的法律，以阻挠司法的执行。

　　He has madejudges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their office and theamount and payment of their salary.

　　他迫使法官为了保住任期、薪金的数额和支付而置于他个人意志的支配之下。

　　He haserected a multitude of new officers and sent hither swarms of officers toharass our people and eat out our substances.

　　他滥设新官署，委派大批官员到这里骚扰我们的人民，吞噬我们的财物。

　　He has keptamong usin times of peace standing armies without the consent of ourlegislatures.

　　他在和平时期，未经我们立法机构同意，就在我们中间维持其常备军。

　　He hasaffected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.

　　他施加影响使军队独立于文官政权之外，并凌驾于文官政权之上。

　　He hascombined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to ourconstitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their actsof pretended legislation.

　　他同他人勾结，把我们置于一种既与我们的法规不相干，也未经我们的法律承认的管辖之下，而且还批准他们的伪法案;

　　For quarteringlarge bodies of armed troops among us;

　　在我们中间驻扎大批的武装部队;

　　Forprotecting them by a mock trial from punishment for any murder which theyshould 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，他可用虚假的审判来庇护他们，让他们逍遥法外;

　　For cuttingoff our trade with all parts of the world;

　　他切断我们同世界各地的贸易;

　　For imposingtaxes on us without our consent;

　　未经我们同意便向我们强行征税;

　　For deprivingus inmany cases of the benefits of trial by jury;

　　在许多案件中，通过伤害来剥夺我们享有陪审的权益;

　　Fortransporting 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;

　　Forabolishing the free systems of English laws in a neighboring Provinceestablishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries soas to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the sameabsolute 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 takingaway our charters abolishing our most valuable laws and alteringfundamentally the forms of our governments;

　　他取消了我们的宪章，废除了我们最珍贵的法律，并从根本上改变了我们政府的形式;

　　Forsuspending our own legislaturesand declaring themselves invested with power tolegislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

　　他终止我们的立法机构行使权力，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 hasabdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection and waging waragainst us.

　　他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 hasplundered ourseas ravaged our coasts burnt our towns and destroyed the livesof our people.

　　他在我们的海域里掠夺，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 thistime transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works ofdeath desolation and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty andperfidy scarcely parallel in the most barbarous ages and totally unworthy thehead 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 hasconstrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear armsagainst their country to become the executioners of their friends andbrethren 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，使他们成为残杀他们自己的朋友和同胞的刽子手，或使他们死于他们自己的朋友和同胞的手下。

　　He hasexcited domestic insurrection amongst us and has endeavored to bring on theinhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages whose known rule ofwarfare 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，印地安人的作战准则是不分辨男女老幼和是非曲直一律格杀勿论。

　　In everystage of these oppressions，we have petitioned for redress inthe most humble terms: our repeated petition have been answered only byrepeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which maydefine 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 webeen wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them fromtime to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdictionover us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration andsettlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity andwe have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow theseusurpation which would inevitably interrupt our connections andcorrespondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and ofconsanguinity. We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity whichdenouncesour separation and hold them. as we hold the rest of mankind enemiesin warin 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。

　　Wetherefore the Representatives of the United States of America in GeneralCongress assembled appealing to the supreme Judge of the world for therectitude of our intentions do in the name and by authority of the goodpeople of these Colonies solemnly publish and declare That these UnitedStates Colonies and Independent States; that they are absolved by from allallegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between themand the Statethey have full power to levy war conclude peace contractalliances establish commerce and to do all other acts and things whichIndependent States may of right do. And for the support of this declarationwith a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence we mutually pledgeto each other our livesour 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，而且也应是独立自由的国家;我们对英凯师室效忠的全部义务，我们与大不列颠王国之间一切政治联系全部断绝。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。