(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to the MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. In the summer of eighteen fifty-eight, two candidates campaigned across the state of Illinois for a seat in the United States Senate. That seat belonged to Stephen Douglas from the Democratic Party. He was seeking re-election. His opponent was a lawyer from the newly established Republican Party. His name was Abraham Lincoln. This week in our series, Frank Oliver and Larry West tell us about this campaign of statewide but also national importance. Abraham Lincoln proposed that he and Stephen Douglas hold several debates. The rules for each debate would be the same. One man would speak for an hour. His opponent would speak for an hour and a half. Then the first man would speak for half an hour to close the debate. Douglas agreed. There were seven debates in all. They were held in towns throughout Illinois. In some places, there was great interest in what the two candidates had to say. Thousands of people attended.
Douglas was a short, heavy man. One reporter said he looked like a fierce bulldog. Douglas's friends and supporters called him "the little giant." Lincoln was just the opposite. He was very tall and thin, with long arms and legs. His clothes did not fit well. And he had a plain face, one which many thought was ugly. He looked more like a simple farmer than a candidate for the United States Senate. The Lincoln-Douglas debates covered party politics and the future of the nation. But everything the two men discussed was tied to one issue: slavery. Douglas spoke first at the first debate. He questioned a statement made in one of Lincoln's campaign speeches. Lincoln had said that the United States could not continue to permit slavery in some areas, while banning it in others. He said the Union could not stand so divided. It must either permit slavery everywhere -- or nowhere. Douglas did not agree. He noted that the country had been half-slave and half-free for seventy years. Why then, he asked, should it not continue to exist that way. The United States was a big country. What was best for one part might not be best for another.
Then Douglas questioned Lincoln's statement on the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. Lincoln had said he opposed the decision, because it did not permit Negroes to enjoy the rights of citizenship. Douglas said he believed the decision was correct. He said it was clear that the government had been made by white men, for white men. He said he opposed Negro citizenship. "I do not accept the Negro as my equal," Douglas said. "And I deny that he is my brother. However," he said, "this does not mean I believe that Negroes should be slaves. Negroes should enjoy every possible right that does not threaten the safety of the society in which they live." "Every state and territory must decide for itself what these rights will be. Illinois decided that Negroes will not be citizens, but that it will protect their life, property, and civil rights. It keeps from Negroes only political rights, and refuses to make Negroes equal to white men. That policy satisfies me," Douglas said. "And, it satisfies the Democratic Party."
Then Lincoln spoke. First, he denied that the Republican Party was an Abolitionist party." I have no purpose," he said, "either directly or indirectly, to interfere with slavery where it exists. I believe I have no legal right to do so. Nor do I wish to do so. I do not," Lincoln said, "wish to propose political and social equality between the white and black races." "But," he went on, "there is no reason in the world why Negroes should not have all the natural rights listed in the Declaration of Independence. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." "I agree with Judge Douglas," Lincoln said, "that the Negro is not my equal in many ways -- certainly not in color, perhaps not mentally or morally. But in the right to eat the bread that his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." Lincoln then defended his statement that the United States could not continue half slave and half free. He said he did not mean that customs or institutions must be the same in every state. He said it was healthy and necessary for differences to exist in a country so large. He said different customs and institutions helped unite the country, not divide it. But Lincoln questioned if slavery was such an institution. He said slavery had not tied the states of the Union together, but had always been an issue that divided them.
How had the country existed half-slave and half-free for so many years, Lincoln asked. Because, he said, the men who created the government believed that slavery was only temporary. Once people understood that slavery was not permanent, the crisis would pass. Slavery could be left alone in the South until it slowly died. That way, Lincoln said, would be best for both the white and black races. Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were campaigning for a Senate seat from the state of Illinois. But their debates had national importance, too. Douglas expected to be the Democratic candidate for president in eighteen sixty. His statements could win or lose him support for that contest. Whenever possible, he tried to show that he was a man of the people, like Lincoln. He tried to show that his Democratic Party was a national party, while the Republican Party was a party only of the North. And he tried to show that Lincoln's policies would lead to civil war. Lincoln, for his part, may have looked like a simple farmer. But he was a very smart lawyer and politician. He asked questions which he knew would cause trouble for Douglas. He wanted to create a split between Douglas and his supporters in the South.
Lincoln also wanted to keep alive the debate over slavery. "That," he said, "is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself are silent. It is the eternal struggle between right and wrong." In Illinois in eighteen fifty-eight, the state legislature chose the men who would represent the state in the national Senate. So Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln had to depend on legislative support to get to Washington. On election day, the legislative candidates supporting Lincoln won four thousand more popular votes than the candidates supporting Douglas. But because of the way election areas had been organized, the Douglas Democrats won a majority of seats. The newly elected legislature chose him to be senator. Lincoln was sad that he had not won. But he said he was glad to have tried. The campaign, he said, "gave me a hearing on the great question of the age, which I could have had in no other way. And though I now sink out of view and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I have gone."
Many people, however, did not think Abraham Lincoln would be forgotten. His campaign speeches had been published everywhere in the East. His name was becoming widely known. People began to speak of him as a presidential candidate. To win the presidential election of eighteen sixty, the Republican Party had decided it needed a man of the people. He must be a good politician and leader. He must be opposed to slavery, but not too extreme. Many people thought Lincoln could be that man. After the election in Illinois, Lincoln made several speaking trips in the western states. In none of his speeches did he say he might be a candidate for president in eighteen sixty. If anyone said anything about "Lincoln for president," he would answer that he did not have the ability. Or he would say there were better men in the party than himself. Lincoln said: "Only events can make a president." He would wait for those events.
重点解析
1.be tied to 被系在；系在一起
If you have small children, you will be tied to your home.
如果你有小孩子，你就会被约束在家了。
2.keep from 避开；使......不
Unable any longer to keep from breaking in she said, "I simply cannot believe you're serious."
她再也忍不住了，便插话道：“我真不敢相信你是认真的。”
3.interfere with 干扰；干涉
It will seriously interfere with the progress of the work.
它将严重干扰工作的进展。
4.expect to 期望；预期
I do expect to have some time to myself in the evenings.
我确实希望晚上能有些属于自己的时间。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。1858年夏天，两位候选人在伊利诺伊州竞选美国参议院的席位。该席位属于民主党人史蒂芬·道格拉斯，他试图连任。他的对手是新成立的共和党的一位律师，名叫亚伯拉罕·林肯。在本周的系列节目中，弗兰克·奥利弗和拉里·韦斯特将向我们讲述这场在伊利诺伊州，乃至全美范围内都很重要的竞选活动。亚伯拉罕·林肯提议他和史蒂芬·道格拉斯进行几次辩论。每次辩论的规则都一样，一人发言一小时，其对手发言一个半小时，然后第一个人进行半小时结束辩论的发言。道格拉斯表示同意。一共进行了七场辩论，均在伊利诺伊州的各个城镇举行。在某些地方，人们对于两位候选人要说的话很感兴趣，数千人参加了辩论。
道格拉斯是个身材矮胖的人，一位记者说他看起来像一只凶猛的斗牛犬。道格拉斯的朋友和支持者称他为“小巨人”。林肯则恰恰相反。他又高又瘦，胳膊和腿都很颀长，穿着的衣服并不合身。他相貌平常，许多人认为他长得很难看。他看起来更像一个农民，而不像是美国参议院的候选人。林肯·道格拉斯的辩论涵盖了政党政治和国家的未来，但两人所讨论的内容都与一个问题休戚相关：奴隶制。道格拉斯在第一场辩论中首先发言，他质疑林肯竞选演说中的一项声明。林肯曾说过，美国不能在某些地区继续实行奴隶制，而在其他地区禁止奴隶制。他说联邦不能忍受如此的分裂行为，要么允许奴隶制的存在，要么就在任何地方都禁止奴隶制。道格拉斯不同意。他指出，美国70年来一直都是一半土地上有奴隶存在，一半是自由之地。他问，为什么不能继续以这种方式存在。美国是一个大国，在一个地区最适宜的做法可能对另一个地区并不好。
随后，道格拉斯质疑林肯关于最高法院对德雷德·斯科特裁决的声明。林肯说，他反对这项裁决，因为它不允许黑人享有公民权。道格拉斯表示，他相信这项裁决是正确的。他说，很明显，政府是由白人组建的，为白人服务，他反对黑人享有公民权。道格拉斯说：“我不接受黑人与我平等。我否认他是我的兄弟。然而，这并不意味着我相信黑人应该是奴隶。黑人应该享有一切可能的权利，而不威胁他们所生活的社会的安全。“每个州和每片领土都必须自己决定这些权利是什么。伊利诺伊州裁决黑人不是公民，但会保护他们的生命、财产和公民权利。它只是不允许黑人拥有政治权利，拒绝使黑人与白人平等。我对这项裁决感到满意，民主党也对其感到满意。”
接下来由林肯发言。首先，他否认共和党是一个废奴主义政党，“我没有任何目的，”他说，“无论是直接还是间接地，去干涉实施奴隶制的地区。我相信，我没有合法的权利这样做，我也不想这样做。我不想提议在白人和黑人之间实现政治和社会平等。”“但是，”他接着说，“没有理由不让黑人享有《独立宣言》中所列的所有自然权利。生命、自由和追求幸福的权利。”“我同意道格拉斯法官的观点，”林肯说，“黑人在很多方面都与我不平等——当然，在肤色方面，也许在精神或道德方面都不平等。但他有权吃自己动手赚得的面包，在这方面他与我平等，与道格拉斯法官平等，与所有在世的人一样平等。”随后，林肯为他曾发表的声明辩护，即美国不能再继续半奴隶制半自由状态的做法。他说，他并不是指每个州的习俗或制度都必须相同。在这么大的一个国家里，存在分歧是健康的，也是必要的。不同的习俗和制度有助于统一、而不是分裂国家。但是，林肯质疑奴隶制是否是这样的一种制度。他说，奴隶制并没有把联邦各州联结在一起，而一直都是造成分裂的问题。
林肯问，这么多年来，这个国家是如何在半奴隶制半自由的状态下存在的。因为创建政府的人认为，奴隶制只是暂时性存在。一旦人们明白奴隶制不是永久性的，危机就会过去。奴隶制可以在南方单独存在，直到其慢慢消亡。林肯表示，这对白人和黑人而言，都是最好的。史蒂芬·道格拉斯和亚伯拉罕·林肯在竞选伊利诺伊州的参议员席位，但他们的辩论也对整个国家具有重要的影响。道格拉斯希望在1860年成为民主党总统候选人，他的声明可能赢得或失去人们对他进行民主党总统候选人的支持。他竭尽全力试图去证明，自己像林肯一样属于人民。他试着表明他所在的民主党是全国性的政党，而共和党只是北方的一个政党。他想证明林肯的政策会导致内战。林肯可能看起来像个普通的农民，但他却是一位非常聪明的律师和政客。他询问了一些他知道会给道格拉斯带来麻烦的问题，想在道格拉斯和他在南方的支持者之间制造分裂。
林肯还想继续进行有关奴隶制的辩论。他说，这才是真正的问题，是道格拉斯法官和我的舌战偃息旗鼓时将继续存留于这个国家的问题。这是对与错之间永恒的争斗。”在1858年的伊利诺伊州，州议会选择在国家参议院代表该州的人。所以，史蒂芬·道格拉斯和亚伯拉罕·林肯必须依靠立法支持才有望前往华盛顿。在选举当天，支持林肯的立法候选人比支持道格拉斯的候选人多赢得了4000张选票。但由于选举地区的组织方式，道格拉斯的民主党赢得了多数席位。新当选的立法机构选举他为参议员。林肯因为没有赢得竞选而感到伤心，但他说，他很高兴自己尝试去做了。竞选活动让我能够聆听这个时代的重大议题，否则我也没有机会去接触。虽然我现在已经淡出公众视野，并被人们所遗忘，但我相信我的所作所为，在我离开后的很长一段时间内，都将为公民自由的事业做出贡献。”
然而，许多人并不认为亚伯拉罕·林肯会被遗忘。他的竞选演说发表在东部的每一个地方，他的名字越来越广为人知，人们开始把他说成是总统候选人。为了赢得1860年的总统选举，共和党决定要选出一位能代表人民的人。这个人一定要是位优秀的政治家和领袖。他必须反对奴隶制，但又不能太极端。许多人认为林肯就是这个人。伊利诺伊州选举结束后，林肯在西部各州进行了数次演说之旅。他在所有的演讲中，都没有表示他可能在1860年成为总统候选人。如果有人说“林肯当总统”，他会回答，自己没有这个能力。或者他说政党中有比他更适合的人选。林肯说：“只有事态的发展才能造就总统。”他将等待这些事件发生。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
