(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to the MAKING OF A NATION American history in VOA Special English. Last week in our series, we talked about the election of Martin Van Buren in eighteen thirty-six as the eighth president of the United States. Van Buren had been very close to the outgoing president, Andrew Jackson. Van Buren had been successful in forming a strong political alliance that helped put Jackson in the White House in the election of eighteen twenty-eight. Jackson was grateful for Van Buren's help, and asked him to come to Washington to serve as secretary of state. Van Buren had just been elected governor of the state of New York, but decided to accept Jackson's offer. This week, Steve Ember and Gwen Outen talk about Martin Van Buren and the start of his presidency.
Van Buren quickly became the most powerful man in Jackson's cabinet. He was able to help Jackson in negotiations with Britain and France. But his greatest help was in building a strong political party for Jackson. It was this party that gave Jackson wide support for his policies. Van Buren built up the national Democratic Party with the same methods he used to build his political organization in New York state. He removed from government jobs people who had not supported Jackson. These jobs were then given to those who had supported the president. Van Buren served as secretary of state for two years. He resigned because he saw his resignation as the only way of solving a serious problem Jackson faced. The problem was Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun had presidential hopes. He did not think Jackson would serve more than one term. And he planned to be a candidate in the next election. Three of the five men in Jackson's cabinet supported Calhoun. Jackson could not trust them. And he wanted to get them out of the cabinet...but without a political fight.
Then, later, he named Van Buren minister to Britain. But Calhoun's supporters in the Senate defeated Van Buren's nomination. By this time, Jackson had decided that Van Buren would be the best man to follow him as president. He offered to resign after the eighteen thirty-two elections and give Van Buren the job of president. Van Buren rejected the offer. He said he wanted to be elected by the people. But he did agree to be Jackson's vice president in eighteen thirty-two. Four years later, at Jackson's request, the Democrats chose Van Buren to be their presidential candidate. He was opposed by several candidates of the newly formed Whig Party. The opposition was divided. And Van Buren won the election with little difficulty. Andrew Jackson stood beside Martin Van Buren as the new president was sworn-in. Physically, the two men were very different. Jackson was tall, with long white hair that flowed back over his head. Jackson's health had been poor during the last few months he spent in the White House. He seemed tired. There was almost no color in his face. Van Buren was much shorter and had much less hair. His eyes were brighter than those of the old man next to him. In his inaugural speech, Van Buren noted that he was the first American born after the revolution to become president. He said he felt he belonged to a later age. He called for more unity among Democrats of the North and South. He said better times were ahead for the country.
Van Buren had a strange way with words. He could talk with excitement about something, but say very little about his own feelings on the subject. Once, he spoke in New York about the tax on imports. Two men who heard the speech discussed it later. "It was a very able speech," said one man, a wool buyer. "Yes, very able," answered his friend. There was silence for a moment. Then the first man spoke again. "Was Mister Van Buren for or against the import tax?" The new president was a warm and friendly man. He tried to keep his political life and his social life separate. It was not unusual to see him exchange handshakes, smiles and jokes with men who were his political enemies. Van Buren had a poor education as a boy. He went to school only for a few years. His father was a farmer and hotel keeper at a little town in New York state. Van Buren had a quick mind and was a good judge of men. But he always felt he could have done more had he received a college education.
Van Buren had been president for just a few days when an economic crisis and a political storm struck the country. The storm had been building for many months. It really began with the death of the Bank of the United States more than a year before. Andrew Jackson had opposed the powerful bank in which the government's money was kept. He vetoed a bill that would have continued it. The bank was so strong that it was able to control the economy throughout most of the country. It did so through its loans to businessmen. By making many loans, the bank could increase economic activity. By reducing the number of loans, the economy could be tightened. The Bank of the United States also helped to control the smaller state banks. It refused to accept the notes, or paper money, of these banks, unless the state banks were ready to exchange the paper for gold or silver money. After the end of the Bank of the United States, there was little control of any kind over the state banks. Many new state banks opened. All of them produced large amounts of paper money -- many times the amount they could exchange for gold or silver. Much of this paper money was used by business speculators to buy land from the government. These men bought the land, held it for a while, then sold it for more than they paid. The government soon found itself with millions of dollars of paper money.
To stop this, President Jackson ordered gold or silver payments only for government land. This made it necessary for speculators to exchange their paper notes for gold. Many banks could not do this. They did not have enough gold. There was another problem. Congress passed a law on what was to be done with federal money not needed by the national government. This extra money, or surplus, was to be given to the states. Since the closing of the Bank of the United States, the government had kept its money in a number of state banks. Now these banks had to surrender the government surplus to the state governments. This left even less gold and silver to exchange for the huge amounts of paper money the banks had issued. There was still another demand for what gold the banks had. Eighteen thirty-five and eighteen thirty-seven were bad years for American agriculture. Many crops failed. Instead of the United States exporting farm products to Europe, the opposite happened. American traders had to import these things from Europe. And they had to pay for them in gold or silver. As more and more paper money was put into use, the value of the money fell. Prices rose higher and higher. Poor people found it almost impossible to buy food and other necessities.
In eighteen thirty-five, a barrel of flour cost six dollars. Two years later, the price had jumped to more than twelve dollars. The same was true with meat and other foods. Even coal, the fuel people used to heat their homes, cost twice as much. Poor people protested. But businessmen were satisfied. They wished to continue the flood of paper money. Violence finally broke out at a protest meeting in New York City. A crowd of angry people heard speakers criticize the use of paper money. Some in the crowd began demanding action against the rich traders. A crowd of about one-thousand marched to a nearby store, broke into it, and destroyed large amounts of flour and grain. In the spring of eighteen thirty-seven, the demand on banks for gold and silver grew too heavy. The banks stopped honoring their promises to exchange their paper money for gold. They said this was just temporary. That it was necessary to stop -- for a while -- all payments in gold or silver. The crisis got worse. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION.
重点解析
1.be grateful for 对…心存感激；感谢
You expected me to be grateful for you so-called help. Listen, I don't appreciate your kindness at all.
你预料我会感激你的所谓帮助，告诉你，我不领情。
2.built up 确立；增进
Starting bare-handed, you have built up so many steel plants. This is nothing short of miracles.
你们白手起家，修建了这么多钢铁厂，这简直是个奇迹。
3.serve as 作为；担任
Several painters were working on a huge piece of canvas which would serve as the scenery.
几位画家正在一块用作舞台布景的巨大帆布上作画。
4.agree to 同意；赞成
He said all that remained was to agree to a time and venue.
他说剩下的只是商定一个时间和集会地点。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。上周，在我们的系列节目中，我们谈到了1836年马丁·范布伦当选美国第八任总统。范布伦与即将离任的总统安德鲁·杰克逊关系密切。范布伦曾成功地组建了一个强大的政治联盟，帮助杰克逊在1828年的选举中入主白宫。杰克逊感谢范布伦的帮助，并请他来华盛顿担任国务卿。范布伦刚刚当选纽约州州长，但决定接受杰克逊的提议。本周，史蒂夫·恩伯和格温·奥登将讲述马丁·范布伦和他总统任期内的故事。
范布伦很快成为杰克逊内阁中最有权势的人，他帮助杰克逊与英国和法国谈判。但他给与的最大帮助是为杰克逊建立一个强大的政党，正是这个政党为杰克逊赢得广泛的支持。范布伦用他在纽约州建立政治组织的方法建立了国家民主党，他把那些不支持杰克逊的人从政府公职中除名，这些工作后来分配给那些支持总统的人。范布伦担任国务卿两年，他辞职是因为他认为那是解决杰克逊面临的严重问题的唯一方法。问题出在副总统约翰·C·卡尔霍恩身上。卡尔霍恩想有朝一日自己做总统。他认为杰克逊不会连任，他计划在下次选举中成为总统候选人。杰克逊内阁的五名成员中有三人支持卡尔霍恩，杰克逊不能相信他们。他希望不通过政治争斗就能把他们清出内阁。
后来，他任命范布伦为英国事务部长，但参议院中卡尔霍恩的支持者在提名中击败了范布伦。这时，杰克逊已经决定范布伦是继他之后成为总统的最佳人选。他提出在1832年选举后辞职，并将总统职位交与范布伦。范布伦拒绝了这个提议，他说他想经由人民选举当选。但他同意在1832年成为杰克逊的副总统。四年后，应杰克逊的要求，民主党人选出范布伦作为总统候选人。新成立的辉格党中有几个候选人反对范布伦，但反对党意见分歧，范布伦轻松赢得选举。新总统宣誓就职时，安德·杰克逊站在马丁·范布伦身旁。两人在外形方面截然不同。杰克逊很高，长长的白发垂在头上。杰克逊在白宫度过的最后几个月，身体一直不好。他看起来很疲惫，脸上几乎没有血色。范布伦则矮得多，头发也更少。他的眼睛比身旁那位老人的眼睛更明亮。范布伦在就职演说中指出，他是革命后出生的第一个成为总统的美国人，他觉得自己属于近代派，呼吁南北两方民主党能够更加团结，美国的将来会更美好。
范布伦说话的方式很奇怪，他可以兴奋地谈论某件事，但很少谈论自己对这件事的感受。有一次，他在纽约州谈到进口税。两个听到演讲的人后来讨论了此事。一个买羊毛的人说：“这是一次非常出色的演讲”。“是的，非常出色，”他的朋友回答说。两人沉默了一会儿。然后第一个人又开口了，“范布伦先生是赞成还是反对进口税？”新总统是个热情友好的人，他试着把自己的政治生活和社交生活分开。他经常与政敌们握手、微笑、开玩笑。范布伦小时候并未接受过良好的教育，他只上过几年学。父亲是纽约州一个小镇的农民和旅馆老板。范布伦头脑敏捷，看人很准。但他总觉得，如果接受过大学教育，他就可以成就更多的事情。
范布伦就任总统职务几天后，一场经济危机和政治风暴就向美国袭来。这场风暴已酝酿数月，实际上，从美国银行倒闭前的一年多就开始了。安德鲁·杰克逊反对将政府资金存放在这家势力强大的银行中，他否决了一项可以继续原有做法的法案。美国银行非常强大，它用向商人提供贷款的方式，控制全国大部分地区的经济。银行通过发放大量贷款，可以增加经济活动；而减少贷款数量，就可以让经济紧缩。美国银行也帮助控制较小的国有银行，它拒绝接受这些银行的票据或纸币，除非国有银行将这些纸币兑换成黄金或白银。美国银行倒闭后，对国有银行几乎没有了任何控制。许多新的国有银行陆续开张营业。他们都制造了大量纸币——可以兑换数倍的黄金或白银。大部分纸币被商业投机者用来从政府手中购买土地。这些人购买土地后，持有一段时间后再以高价转卖。不久，政府发现其拥有的纸币额已达数百万美元。
为了阻止这种情况继续发生，总统杰克逊下令购买政府土地只能支付黄金或白银，这使投机者必须用纸币兑换黄金。许多银行因为没有足够的黄金，而无法执行这一举措。还有另外一个问题。国会通过了一项法律，规定出国家政府不需要的联邦资金的用途。这些额外款项，或者说是盈余，将分给各州政府。自从美国银行倒闭后，政府一直把钱存在一些国家银行中。现在，这些银行不得不将政府盈余交给州政府，这使得能够兑换银行发行的大量纸币的黄金和白银数量少之又少。银行拥有的黄金还有另一个需求之处。1835年和1837年，美国农业状况萧条，许多农作物歉收。以前都是美国向欧洲出口农产品，此时的情况则恰恰相反。美国商人不得不从欧洲进口这些农产品，他们必须支付黄金或白银。随着越来越多的纸币投入使用，纸币价值下跌。物价越来越高，穷人发现几乎无法买到食物和其他必需品。
1835年，一桶面粉要花六美元。两年后，价格涨到12美元以上。肉类和其他食物也是如此。就连人们用作取暖燃料的煤，价格也涨到原来的两倍。穷人开始抗议，但商人们却很满意，他们希望让纸币继续泛滥。在纽约市的一次抗议集会上，暴力事件终于爆发了。一群愤怒的人听到演讲者批评使用纸币，人群中的一些人开始要求对有钱的商人采取行动。大约有一千人游行到附近的一家商店，破门而入，毁坏了大量的面粉和谷物。1837年春天，银行对金银的需求增长过大，不再履行用纸币兑换黄金的承诺。他们说这只是暂时的措施，有必要暂时停止所有用金银进行的支付活动。危机进一步恶化。这将是我们下期建国史话的故事。
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