(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION --American history in VOA Special English. Andrew Jackson was elected presidentin eighteen twenty-eight. He was popular with voters. But he was not sure hewanted to run for re-election in eighteen thirty-two. He was getting old. Hesuffered from health problems. Yet he wanted to give voters a chance to showtheir approval of his programs. So Jackson made a decision. He would run again.If he won, however, he would resign after the first or second year. He wouldleave the job to his vice president. Now, this week in our series, RichKleinfeldt and Sarah Long continue the story of Andrew Jackson and hispresidency.
President Jackson spoke of this plan to theman he wanted as his vice president, Martin Van Buren. He made the offer ineighteen thirty, when Van Buren was still his secretary of state. Van Burenthanked Jackson for the offer. However, he rejected it. Van Buren said it wouldbe politically dangerous. He did not want anyone to say that he had beenbrought into the presidency in secret. Jackson did not give up his idea. Formore than a year, he continued to urge Van Buren to accept the offer. Van Burencontinued to say no. He agreed to be Jackson's vice presidential candidate ineighteen thirty-two. But he said he did not want to become president withoutbeing elected by the people. As the election got closer, Jackson's health beganto improve. He began to think about serving a second full term. One thing thathelped was an operation to remove a bullet from his arm. He had received thewound during a gun fight with another man about twenty years earlier. Ittroubled him so badly that sometimes he could not use the arm. Doctors wereafraid to remove the bullet. They thought it might cause a terrible shock tohis heart. Early in the election year, a doctor said he believed the bulletcould be removed easily. He told the president that it was poisoning his wholebody. Jackson asked the doctor to cut out the bullet at once. The operation wasover in a few minutes. Jackson's health quickly became much better. A funnylittle story was told about that bullet. Someone reportedly said Jackson shouldgive it to the family of the man who shot him.
Onefamily member rejected the offer. He said Jackson had possessed the bullet fortwenty years. So, he said, under the law, Jackson had clear ownership to it."Only nineteen years," someone noted. "Oh," the man said,"that is all right. Since Jackson took good care of it, I will forget theextra year." The presidential election campaign of eighteen thirty-two wasbitter. President Jackson was, once again, the candidate of the DemocraticParty. Henry Clay was the candidate of the National Republican Party. Clay hadthe support of Nicholas Biddle, who was head of the Bank of the United States.He also had the support of about two-thirds of the nation's newspapers. Thiswas because most of them owed money to the bank. Most wealthy people supportedClay, too. Farmers and laborers supported Jackson. They showed their support bymarching in parades and holding big, noisy public meetings. On election day,the people showed that Jackson was still their president. There was a muchbigger difference in popular votes between Jackson and Clay than betweenJackson and John Quincy Adams four years earlier. As the votes were counted,one of Clay's supporters said: "The news blows over us like a great coldstorm." Jackson received about six hundred eighty-eight thousand popularvotes. Clay received about four hundred seventy-three thousand votes. In theelectoral college, Jackson got more than four times the number of votes thanClay got. Jackson's vice president would be Martin Van Buren.
Andrew Jackson saw his re-election as proofthat the American people approved of his policies. This included his policy toclose the Bank of the United States when its charter ended in eighteenthirty-six. During his second term, Jackson decided on a plan to reduce thebank's economic power. He would stop putting federal money into the bank.Instead, he would put it into state banks. This would greatly reduce the amountof money the Bank of the United States could use. The plan was not as easy asit seemed. The charter for the bank said federal money had to be kept thereunless the secretary of the treasury ordered it put someplace else. PresidentJackson's treasury secretary was friendly to the bank. He would not give theorder. Jackson would have to dismiss the man and appoint someone who supportedhis plan. But the treasury secretary was a powerful politician. Jackson couldnot push him out of the job. He had to find another way. So he decided toreorganize his whole cabinet. Jackson named his secretary of state to beminister to France. He named his treasury secretary to be secretary of state.Then he brought in someone new as secretary of the treasury. That turned out tobe a mistake.
The new treasury secretary refused to putfederal money anywhere but in the Bank of the United States. He also refused toresign when Jackson asked him to resign. So Jackson dismissed him and named yetanother new treasury secretary. This man immediately ordered that after Octoberfirst, eighteen thirty-three, all federal money was to be put into twenty-threestate banks. He did not withdraw the government money already in the Bank ofthe United States. He said this money could be used to make payments until itwas all gone. Nicholas Biddle, the head of the bank, fought back. He orderedthe immediate repayment of all bank loans. He also withdrew from public uselarge numbers of bank notes. People had been using the notes as money. Theseactions caused serious economic difficulties throughout the country. Manybusinesses failed. They could not pay back their loans or borrow the money theyneeded. As businesses failed, workers lost their jobs.
NicholasBiddle said the Jackson administration was responsible for all the trouble. Hesaid the bank was forced to take firm measures, because it was losinggovernment money. He told people to protest to the administration. Critics ofPresident Jackson's bank policy called him "King Andrew the First."Groups of businessmen called on the president at the White House. They urgedhim to put government money back into the bank. Jackson told one group: "Iwill never restore the money. I will never renew the charter of the Bank of theUnited States. If you want help, go to Nicholas Biddle. " The president'sactions worried even some of his supporters. There could be serious long-termeffects of closing the Bank of the United States. Some of his supporters inCongress went to see him. They warned him of reports that a mob was forming tomarch on Washington. They told him that the mob planned to seize the Capitolbuilding until Congress returned government money to the bank. "Gentlemen,"Jackson said, "I will be glad to see this mob on Capitol Hill. I will hangits leaders high. That should stop forever all attempts to control Congress byforce." We will continue our story of Andrew Jackson's second term aspresident next week.
重点解析
1.popular with 受…喜爱；爱戴
His engaging personality made him popular with his peers.
他迷人的个性使他深受同龄人的喜爱。
2.suffer from 患病；受…之苦
They suffer from health problems and fear the long term effects of radiation.
他们遭受着健康问题的困扰并且害怕辐射的长期影响。
3.in secret 秘密的；暗中
Andrews had stashed money away in secret offshore bank accounts.
安德鲁斯已经将钱存到了秘密的海外银行账户中。
4.turn out 原来；结果是
Cosgrave's forecast turned out to be quite wrong.
科斯格雷夫的预测最后证明是大错特错。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。安德鲁·杰克逊于1828年当选总统，他深受选民们的爱戴。但他不确定自己是否想在1832年再次参加竞选，因为他年事已高，身患疾病。然而，他想让人民有机会表明他们赞同他的各项方案。所以杰克逊做出决定，他会再次参加总统竞选，如果获胜，他会在第一年或第二年后辞职，然后把工作转交给副总统。在本周的系列节目中，里克·勒芬费尔特和萨拉·朗将继续讲述安德鲁·杰克逊及其总统任职期间发生的故事。
总统杰克逊想任命马丁·范布伦为副总统，他向范布伦谈到这个计划。他在1830年提出这个提议，当时范布伦还是他的国务卿。范布伦感谢杰克逊的提议。不过，他回绝了。范布伦说从政治方面考虑，这样做很危险，他不想让任何人说他是秘密被送上总统宝座的。杰克逊没有放弃他的想法。在一年多的时间里，他一直力劝范布伦接受这个提议，范布伦还是回绝。1832年，范布伦同意做杰克逊的副总统候选人。但他说，他不想在没有人民选举的情况下成为总统。随着选举的临近，杰克逊的健康状况开始好转，他开始考虑连任四年。后来，杰克逊接受了一个手术，这让他的健康状况大为好转，医生从他手臂上取出一颗子弹。子弹是在大约20年前，他与另一名男子进行枪战时留下的，这个伤给他带来诸多不便，有时他都不能用胳膊。医生们不敢取出子弹，他们认为这可能会对他的心脏造成严重的冲击。在大选之年的早些时候，有一位医生说他认为能够很容易地取出子弹。他告诉总统这颗子弹严重损害他的身体健康。杰克逊要求医生马上把子弹取出来。几分钟后，手术就结束了。杰克逊的健康状况迅速好转。
有人讲过一个关于那颗子弹的趣事。据说，有人让杰克逊把子弹送给射杀他的那个人的家人。那家人中有一个人拒绝了这个提议。他说杰克逊已经拥有这颗子弹长达20年之久，根据法律规定，杰克逊对它拥有明确的所有权。有人指出：“只有十九年。”那人说：“哦，没关系。既然杰克逊把它保存得很妥当，我就不计较那一年了。”1832年的总统竞选活动角逐激烈。总统杰克逊再次成为民主党候选人，亨利·克莱是国家共和党候选人。克莱得到了美国银行行长尼古拉斯·比德尔的支持，他还获得全国约三分之二报刊的支持，这是因为他们大多数都欠银行钱。很多富人也支持克莱。农民和工人支持杰克逊，他们通过组织游行，举行吵闹的大型公共会议等方式支持杰克逊。在选举当天，人们表示杰克逊仍然是他们的总统。杰克逊和克莱在民选上的差距比四年前杰克逊和约翰·昆西·亚当斯的差距要大得多。计票时，一位克莱的支持者说：“这个消息像一场巨大的寒潮席卷了我们。”杰克逊获得约688000张选票，克莱获得约473000张选票。在选举团中，杰克逊获得的选票比克莱多三倍。杰克逊的副总统为马丁·范布伦。
安德鲁·杰克逊把他的连任看作是美国人民对他实施的政策的认可，其中包括美国银行章程在1836年结束时，杰克逊想要关闭美国银行。在杰克逊的第二届任期内，他决定制定一项降低银行经济实力的计划。他不再把联邦资金存入银行，而是把它存入国有银行，这将大大削减美国银行的可用资金。这个计划并不像看上去那么简单。该银行章程中指明，除非财政部长下令将联邦资金存入他处，否则联邦资金必须存在美国银行。杰克逊总统的财政部长和银行关系很好，他不会下达此命令。杰克逊不得不解雇这个人，并任命一个支持他计划的人担任此职。不过，财政部长是一位有权势的政客，杰克逊没办法解雇他。他不得不另辟蹊径，所以他决定重组整个内阁。杰克逊任命国务卿出任驻法大使，财政部长出任国务卿。随后，他又请来一位新人出任财政部长。这是个错误的安排。
新财政部长拒绝把联邦政府的资金存放到别处，而只存在美国银行。当杰克逊要求他辞职时，他也拒绝辞职。所以杰克逊解雇了他，并任命了另一位新财政部长。这个人立即下令，在1833年10月1日后，将所有联邦资金都要存入23个州的国有银行。他没有提取已经存在美国银行的政府资金，他说这些钱可以用来支付费用，直到用尽为止。美国银行行长尼古拉斯·比德尔发起反击。他下令立即偿还所有银行贷款。他还把大量的银行券从公共事业中撤出。人们一直把这些银行券当钱花。这些做法导致全国范围内出现严重的经济困难。许多企业倒闭了，他们无力偿还贷款，也借不到钱。由于企业倒闭，工人也失业了。
尼古拉斯·比德尔说杰克逊政府应对所有问题负责，他说，银行被迫采取坚决的措施，因为它正在损失政府资金。他让人们向政府抗议。对总统杰克逊的银行政策持批评态度的人把他称为“安德鲁国王一世”。一群商人到白宫拜访了总统，他们敦促他把政府资金存回美国银行，杰克逊对一群人说：“我永远不会归还这笔钱，我决不会更新美国银行的章程。如果你们需要帮助，就去找尼古拉斯·比德尔吧。”总统的做法甚至让一些支持者感到担忧，关闭美国银行可能会产生严重的长期影响。暴徒计划占领国会大厦，要求国会将政府资金归还美国银行。杰克逊说：“先生们，我愿意在国会山见这群暴徒，我要把领头人吊死。这将永远阻止那些试图用武力控制国会的所有企图。”我们将在下周继续讲述安德鲁·杰克逊第二个总统任期内发生的故事。
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