(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to the MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. The United States faced a deep national crisis in eighteen fifty. That crisis threatened to split the nation in two. It began over the issue of slavery in the new territories of California and Mexico. President Zachary Taylor had no clear policy on the issue. He tried to be neutral. He hoped the problem would solve itself. But he did not get his wish. The split between the North and South only got wider. There was a real danger that the South would declare its independence. Then, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky stepped forward to save the Union. This week in our series, Stuart Spencer and Jack Moyles begin the story of the Compromise of Eighteen Fifty.
After being away from the Senate for almost eight years, Clay was surprised to find how bitter the two sections of the United States -- north and south -- had grown toward each other. Clay urged his friends in the border states between North and South to try to build public support for the Union. He felt this would help prevent the South from seceding. Clay also began to think about a compromise that might settle the differences between the two sections of the country. Clay was a firm believer in the idea of compromise. He once said: "I go for honorable compromise whenever it can be made. Life itself is but a compromise between death and life. The struggle continues through our whole existence until the great destroyer finally wins. All legislation, all government, all society is formed upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, and courtesy. Upon these, everything is based." Clay was sure that a compromise between North and South was possible. Near the end of January, Clay completed work on his plan. Most parts of it already had been proposed as separate bills. Clay put them together in a way that both sides could accept. Clay offered his plan in a Senate speech on January twenty-ninth, eighteen fifty. Clay proposed that California join the Union as a free state.
He said territorial governments should be formed in the other parts of the western territories, with no immediate decision on whether slavery would be permitted. Clay proposed that the western border of Texas be changed to give New Mexico most of the land disputed by them. In exchange for this, he said, the national government should agree to pay the public debts that Texas had when it became a state. He proposed that no more slaves be sold in the District of Columbia for use outside the federal district, but also proposed that slavery should not be ended in the district unless its citizens and those of Maryland approved. Clay said a better law was needed for the return of fugitive slaves to their owners. He also proposed that Congress declare that it had no power to interfere with the slave trade between states. Senator Clay believed these eight steps would satisfy the interests of both the North and the South. Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi declared that Clay's compromises did not offer anything of value to the South. He said the South would accept nothing less than extending the Missouri compromise line west to the Pacific Ocean. This meant that land south of the line would be open to slavery.
Clay answered that no power on earth could force him to vote to establish slavery where it did not exist. He said Americans had blamed Britain for forcing African slavery on the colonists. He said he would not have the future citizens of California and New Mexico blaming Henry Clay for slavery there. Clay said he did not want to debate, but wished that the senators would think carefully about his proposals. He said he hoped they would decide on them only after careful study. He asked them to see the proposals as a system of compromise, not as separate bills. Clay expected extremists on both sides to denounce the compromise. But he believed the more reasonable leaders of the North and South would accept it. One week after Clay first proposed the compromise, he rose in the Senate to speak in its defense. The Senate hall was crowded. People had come from as far away as Boston and New York to hear Clay speak. Some senators said there had not been such a crowd in the capitol building since the day Clay said goodbye to the Senate eight years earlier. Clay had to rest several times as he climbed the steps of the capitol. He told a friend that he felt very tired and weak. His friend advised Clay to rest and make his speech later. "No," Clay said. "My country is in danger. If I can be the one to save it from that danger, then my health and life are not important."
Clay began his speech by talking of the serious crisis that faced the nation. He said that never before had he spoken to a group as troubled and worried as the one he spoke to now. Clay listed his eight resolutions. Then he said: "No man on earth is more ready than I am to surrender anything which I have proposed and to accept in its place anything that is better. But I ask the honorable senators whether their duty will be done by simply limiting themselves to opposing any one or all of the resolutions I have offered." "If my plan of peace and unity is not right, give us your plan. Let us see how all the questions that have arisen out of this unhappy subject of slavery can be better settled more fairly and justly than the plan I have offered. Present me with such a plan, and I will praise it with pleasure and accept it without the slightest feeling of regret." Clay said the major differences separating the country could be settled by facing facts. He said the first great fact was that laws were not necessary to keep slavery out of California and New Mexico. He said the people of California already had approved an anti-slavery state constitution. And he said the nature of land in New Mexico was such that slaves could not be used.
Clay said there was justice in the borders he proposed for Texas, that it would still be a very large state after losing the area it disputed with New Mexico. And he said it was right for the United States to pay the debts of Texas, because that state no longer could collect taxes on trade as an independent country. Clay said there was equal justice in his resolutions ending the slave trade in the District of Columbia and strengthening laws on the return of runaway slaves. He said the South, perhaps, would be helped more than the North by his proposals. But the North, he said, was richer and had more money and power. To the North, slavery was a matter of feeling. But to the South, Clay said, it was a hard social and economic fact. He said the North could look on in safety while the actions of some of its people were producing flames of bitterness throughout the southern states. Then Clay attacked the South's claim that it had the right to leave the Union. He said the Union of states was permanent -- that the men who built the Union did not do so only for themselves, but for all future Americans.
Clay warned that if the South seceded, there would be war within sixty days. He said the slaves of the South would escape by the thousands to freedom in the North. Their owners would follow them and try to return them to slavery by force. This, he said, would lead to war between the slave-holding and free states. He said this would not be a war of only two or three years. History had shown, he said, that such wars lasted many years and often destroyed both sides. Even if the south could secede without war, he said, it still would not get any of the things it demanded. Secession would not open the territories to slavery. It would not continue the slave trade in the District of Columbia. And it would not lead to the return of slaves who escaped to the North. So, said Clay, the South would not help itself by leaving the Union. Clay's two-day speech gave new hope to many that the Union could be saved.
重点解析
1.step forward 向前；前进
When one is in difficulty, all step forward to help.
一人有难，众人相助。
2.go for 支持；适用于
People tried to persuade him to go for a more gradual reform programme.
人们试图说服他采取更为渐进的改革方案。
3.in exchange for 交换；用......交换
The trade unions bargained away their rights in exchange for a small pay rise.
工会不惜牺牲自己的权利以换取微薄的加薪。
4.interfere with 妨碍；干扰
It will seriously interfere with the progress of the work.
它将严重干扰工作的进展。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。1850年，美国遭遇严重的国家危机，这场危机俨然要把国家一分为二，其源头是加利福尼亚和墨西哥新领地上的奴隶制问题。总统扎卡里·泰勒在这个问题上没有明确的政策表态，他试图保持中立，希望该问题能自行解决。但他未能如愿。南北方之间的分歧在不断扩大，南方可能宣布独立，这才是真正的威胁。随后，肯塔基州的参议员亨利·克莱挺身而出，拯救联邦。在本周的系列故事中，史都华·斯宾塞和杰克·莫伊斯开始讲述有关1850年折中方案的故事。
克莱离开参议院近八年后，他惊讶地发现，美国南北两方之间的关系越发尖锐。克莱敦促处于南北边境地区各州的朋友，尽力为联邦建立公众支持，他认为这将有助于阻止南方脱离联邦。克莱也开始考虑用折中方案解决美国两地之间的分歧。克莱对采用折衷方案解决危机的想法深信不疑，他曾经说过：“只要有机会，我都会采用折衷方案。生命本身只是死亡和生命之间的妥协，这场争斗贯穿我们的整个生命，直到伟大的毁灭者最终获胜。一切立法、一切政府、一切社会都建立在互相让步、礼敬和谦恭的原则之上。一切都是以此为基石。”克莱确信南北双方有可能达成妥协。临近一月底时，克莱按计划完成了工作，其中大部分内容已经被提议作为单独法案。克莱把它们整合，以便双方都能接受。克莱在1850年1月29日的参议院演讲中提出了他的方案，他建议加利福尼亚作为一个自由州加入联邦。
他表示，应该在西部领地的其他地方成立区域政府，而不应立即决定是否允许实施奴隶制。克莱建议改变德克萨斯州的西部边界，让新墨西哥州拥有存在争议的大部分土地。作为交换，国家政府应该在德克萨斯成为美国一个州时，同意偿还其公共债务。克莱建议哥伦比亚特区内不再贩卖奴隶，供联邦特区以外的地方使用，但他也建议除非哥伦比亚特区和马里兰州的公民同意，否则不得在哥伦比亚特区结束奴隶制。克莱表示，需要出台更适宜的法律，以便把逃亡的奴隶归还给他们的主人。他还建议国会宣布无权干涉各州之间的奴隶贸易。参议员克莱认为这八项措施将满足南北双方的利益。来自密西西比州的参议员杰斐逊·戴维斯宣称，克莱的折衷方案并未给南方带来任何有价值的东西。他说，南方将接受的无非是把密苏里妥协线向西延伸到太平洋，这意味着妥协线以南的土地将实施奴隶制。
克莱回答说，没有任何权力能迫使他投票决定在不存在奴隶制的地方建立奴隶制。他说，美国人指责英国迫使殖民地居民实施非洲奴隶制，他不会让加利福尼亚州和新墨西哥州的未来公民把奴隶制归咎于亨利·克莱。克莱说他不想辩论，但希望参议员们仔细考虑他的提议。他表示希望他们在经过仔细研究后再能决定，请求他们把这些建议看作是一个折衷方案体系，而不是单独的法案。克莱想到双方的极端分子会对这个折衷方案大加指责。但他相信，北方和南方那些更为理性的领导人会接受它。克莱第一次提出折中方案一周后，他在参议院为其辩护。参议院大厅里坐满了人，人们从波士顿和纽约远道而来听克莱发表演讲。一些参议员说，自从克莱八年前离开参议院后，国会大厦里就没再有过这么多人。克莱登上国会大厦的台阶时不得不休息几次，他告诉一个朋友他感到非常疲倦和虚弱。他的朋友建议克莱休息一会儿再发表演讲。“不，”克莱说。“我们的国家正处于危险之中。如果我能把它从危险中拯救出来，我的健康和生命就不重要了。”
克莱在演讲开始时谈到了国家面临的严重危机，他说眼前面对的民众是那样的焦虑不安，他从未面对过这样的听众。克莱列举了八项决议，然后他说：“我愿意放弃我所提出的建议，并接受更好的提案。但是我请求尊敬的参议员们，他们的职责是否只限于反对我提出的任何一项或全部决议。”“如果我的和平与统一计划不正确，请把你们的计划提交给我们。让我们看看，这个令大家不满的奴隶制问题引发出的所有问题，怎样才能比我提出的计划更公平、公正地得到解决。给我提交一份这样的计划，我会很高兴地赞扬并接受它，不会有丝毫的遗憾。”克莱说，分裂国家的主要分歧可以通过面对事实得以解决。他说，第一个重要的事实是，没有必要通过法律将奴隶制排除在加利福尼亚州和新墨西哥州之外。加利福尼亚州的人民已经批准了一部反奴隶制的州宪法，新墨西哥州的土地性质是不能使用奴隶。
克莱说，他为德克萨斯州提议的边界是公正的，在失去与新墨西哥州有争议的地区后，德克萨斯仍然是一个非常大的州。他还说，美国偿还德克萨斯州的债务是正确的，因为德克萨斯州不能再作为一个独立的国家征收贸易税。克莱说，他在结束哥伦比亚地区奴隶贸易和加强有关遣返逃亡奴隶的法律方面的决议是公平的。他表示，南部可能会比北部得到更多的帮助。但北方更富有，拥有更多的金钱和权力。在北方，奴隶制中夹杂着感情问题。但克莱说，在南方，这是一个艰难的社会和经济事实。他说北方可以在安全之地静静地观望，但他们中一些人的做法却在整个南方各州人们的心中引燃了苦涩的火焰。接着，克莱攻击了南方声称有权离开联邦的说法。他说，国家联盟是永久性的——建立国家联盟的人不仅是为自己，也是为所有未来的美国人。
克莱警告说，如果南方脱离联邦，60天内就会爆发战争。他说南方的奴隶中，将有成千上万的人逃到北方的自由之地。他们的主人会跟随他们，并试图用武力让他们回去做奴隶。这将导致实施奴隶制的地区和自由州之间爆发战争。他说这不会是一场仅持续两三年的战争，历史表明，这样的战争将持续数年，而且经常是两败俱伤。即使南方能够不借助战争就脱离联邦，但仍然得不到它所要求的任何东西。脱离国家不会使领地开始实施奴隶制，不会使哥伦比亚地区继续进行奴隶交易，也不会让逃到北方的奴隶返回家园。因此，克莱说，南方不会通过脱离联邦来自救。克莱为期两天的演讲给许多人带来了新的希望，希望能够挽救联邦。
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