Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Germany (1917)

Citation: President Wilson's Declaration of War Message to Congress, April 2, 1917; Records of the United States Senate; Record Group 46; National Archives.

引文：威尔逊总统于 1917 年 4 月 2 日向国会发表的宣战讯息；美国参议院的记录；记录组 46；国家档案馆。

View All Pages in the National Archives Catalog

查看国家档案目录中的所有页面

On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson delivered this address to a joint session of Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.

1917 年 4 月 2 日，伍德罗·威尔逊总统在国会联席会议上发表讲话，呼吁对德国宣战。

The resulting congressional vote brought the United States into World War I.

由此产生的国会投票将美国带入第一次世界大战。

As hostilities broke out between several nations of Europe in 1914, President Wilson almost immediately declared America’s intent to stay neutral and called on all Americans to remain impartial in thought as well as deed.

1914 年，当欧洲几个国家之间爆发敌对行动时，威尔逊总统几乎立即宣布美国打算保持中立，并呼吁所有美国人在思想和行动上保持公正。

However, Wilson and the United States found it increasingly difficult to remain neutral.

然而，威尔逊和美国发现保持中立越来越困难。

The series of events between 1915 and 1917 led Wilson to finally deliver his war message to Congress on April 2, 1917.

1915年至1917年间发生的一系列事件导致威尔逊最终于1917年4月2日向国会传达了他的战争信息。

German submarine warfare had resulted in the sinking of several ships and the loss of American lives.

德国潜艇战导致多艘船只沉没，并造成美国人丧生。

Most remarkable was the attack against the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, when 128 Americans died.

最引人注目的是 1915 年 5 月 7 日对卢西塔尼亚号的袭击，当时有 128 名美国人死亡。

While that ship carried some 1,962 passengers and crew, it also carried several thousand cases of ammunition and shrapnel headed to Britain.

该船载有约 1,962 名乘客和船员，同时还载有数千箱弹药和弹片前往英国。

After stern warnings from Wilson, the Germans pledged to abide by traditional rules of search and seizure.

在威尔逊发出严厉警告后，德国人承诺遵守传统的搜查和扣押规则。

Increasingly, however, America was drawn to the side of the British.

然而，美国越来越被吸引到英国一边。

In addition to the historic cultural ties to both Britain and France, munitions shipments to those countries from the United States had increased from around $6 million in 1914 to almost $500 million in 1917.

除了与英国和法国的历史文化联系外，从美国向这些国家运送的军火也从 1914 年的约 600 万美元增加到 1917 年的近 5 亿美元。

American bankers had loaned the Allies over $2 billion.

美国银行家向盟国提供了超过 20 亿美元的贷款。

On the heels of the German announcement to renew unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, the British, on February 24, revealed the Zimmermann Telegram.

1917 年 2 月 1 日德国宣布恢复无限制潜艇战后，英国于 2 月 24 日公布了齐默尔曼电报。

When Wilson released the message to the press on March 1, Americans were shocked and angered.

当威尔逊3月1日向媒体发布这一消息时，美国人感到震惊和愤怒。

With the support of his entire cabinet, Wilson, who had been reelected in 1916 on the slogan “He kept us out of war,” reluctantly concluded that war was inevitable.

1916 年，威尔逊以“他让我们远离战争”的口号再次当选，在整个内阁的支持下，他不情愿地得出战争不可避免的结论。

In his speech before a special session of Congress, Wilson, as usual, took the moral high ground and declared that not only had America’s rights as a neutral been violated but that “The world must be made safe for democracy.” Americans must fight “for the rights and liberties of small nations” and to “bring peace and safety to make the world itself at last free.”

在国会特别会议上的讲话中，威尔逊像往常一样占据了道德制高点，宣称美国作为中立国的权利不仅受到侵犯，而且“必须让世界变得对民主来说是安全的”。美国人必须“为小国的权利和自由”而战，并“带来和平与安全，使世界最终获得自由”。

This document is available on DocsTeach, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.

该文档可在 DocsTeach 上找到，这是一个使用国家档案馆文档进行教学的在线工具。

Find teaching activities that incorporate this document, or create your own online activity .

查找包含本文档的教学活动，或创建您自己的在线活动。

I have called the Congress into extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the responsibility of making.

我之所以召集国会召开特别会议，是因为需要做出严肃、非常严肃的政策选择，而且要立即做出，而我应该承担做出这些选择的责任，这既不正确，也不符合宪法所允许的。

On the third of February last I officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that on and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.

去年2月3日，我正式向你们正式宣布了德意志帝国政府的非凡声明，即在2月1日及之后，其目的是抛开法律或人道的所有限制，并使用其潜艇击沉每一艘试图接近大不列颠和爱尔兰港口或欧洲西海岸或地中海内德国敌人控制的任何港口的船只。

That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last year the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its promise then given to us that passenger boats should not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats.

这似乎是战争初期德国潜艇战的目标，但自去年四月以来，帝国政府按照当时向我们做出的承诺，对其水下船只的指挥官进行了一定程度的限制，即不得击沉客船，并且将向其潜艇在没有抵抗或逃跑企图的情况下可能试图摧毁的所有其他船只发出适当的警告，并注意让他们的船员至少有公平的机会在他们的敞篷船上挽救生命。

The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel and unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.

所采取的预防措施是微不足道和随意的，这一点在残忍和缺乏男子气概的事情的进展中一次又一次令人痛苦的事件中得到了证明，但还是观察到了一定程度的克制。

The new policy has swept every restriction aside.

新政策扫除了一切限制。

Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom: without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.

各种船只，无论其旗帜、性质、货物、目的地、使命如何，都被无情地送入海底：没有任何警告，也没有想到对船上人员的帮助或怜悯，无论是友好中立国的船只还是交战国的船只。

Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by the German Government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle.

即使是医院船和为比利时失去亲人和受灾民众运送救援物资的船只，尽管德国政府本身为后者提供了通过禁区的安全通道，并以明确无误的身份标志来区分，但也因同样鲁莽的缺乏同情心或原则而被击沉。

I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to the humane practices of civilized nations.

我有一段时间无法相信任何迄今为止赞同文明国家人道做法的政府实际上会做出这样的事情。

International law had its origin in the attempt to set up some law which would be respected and observed upon the seas, where no nation had right of dominion and where lay the free highways of the world....

国际法的起源是试图建立一些在海上受到尊重和遵守的法律，海上没有任何国家拥有统治权，世界上有自由的高速公路……

This minimum of right the German Government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world.

德国政府以报复和必要性为借口，将这一起码的权利抛在了一边，因为它没有可以在海上使用的武器，除了那些不可能在使用它们时不把所有人性顾虑或对世界交往基础理解的尊重抛到九霄云外的武器。

I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate.

我现在考虑的不是所涉及的巨大而严重的财产损失，而是对非战斗人员、男人、女人和儿童生命的肆意和大规模破坏，他们从事的活动即使在现代历史最黑暗的时期也一直被认为是无辜和合法的。

Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be.

财产可以支付；和平而无辜的人们的生活不可能如此。

The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.

目前德国针对商业的潜艇战是针对人类的战争。

It is a war against all nations.

这是一场针对所有国家的战争。

American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way.

美国船只被击沉，美国人被夺走生命，其方式深深地震撼了我们，但其他中立和友好国家的船只和人民也以同样的方式在水域中被击沉和淹没。

There has been no discrimination.

不存在任何歧视。

The challenge is to all mankind.

这是对全人类的挑战。

Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it.

每个国家都必须自行决定如何应对这一挑战。

The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation.

我们为自己做出的选择必须以符合我们国家性格和动机的温和的建议和适度的判断来做出。

We must put excited feeling away.

我们必须收起兴奋的情绪。

Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.

我们的动机不是复仇，也不是国家武力的胜利，而只是维护权利、人权，而我们只是人权的捍卫者。

When I addressed the Congress on the twenty-sixth of February last I thought that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe against unlawful violence.

当我去年二月二十六日在国会发表讲话时，我认为用武器维护我们的中立权利、我们使用海洋反对非法干涉的权利、我们保护我们人民安全免受非法暴力的权利就足够了。

But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable.

但现在看来，武装中立是不切实际的。

Because submarines are in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks as the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open sea.

由于潜艇实际上是不法之徒，因为德国潜艇曾被用来对付商船，所以不可能保护船只免受其攻击，因为国际法假定商船会保护自己免受私掠船或巡洋舰的攻击，这些可见的船只在公海上追逐。

It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity indeed, to endeavor to destroy them before they have shown their own intention.

在这种情况下，通常的谨慎做法是在他们表现出自己的意图之前尽力消灭他们，这确实是严峻的必要。

They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all.

如果要处理的话，必须一看到就处理。

The German Government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern publicist has ever before questioned their right to defend.

德国政府否认中立国在其禁止的海域内使用武器的权利，即使是在捍卫权利时也是如此，而现代政论家此前从未质疑过他们捍卫的权利。

The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as pirates would be.

有消息称，我们在商船上部署的武装警卫将被视为超越法律范围，并像海盗一样受到处理。

Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such circumstances and in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual: it is likely only to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain to draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness of belligerents.

武装中立充其量也是无效的。在这种情况下，面对这样的自命不凡，它比无效更糟糕：它很可能只会产生它本想阻止的结果；实际上肯定会把我们拖入战争，而交战方既没有权利，也没有效力。

There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: we will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of our Nation and our people to be ignored or violated.

我们不能做出、也没有能力做出一个选择：我们不会选择屈服的道路，不会让我们国家和人民最神圣的权利被忽视或侵犯。

The wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs; they cut to the very roots of human life.

我们现在所反对的错误并不是常见的错误；它们斩断了人类生命的根源。

With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it, and that it take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense but also to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the Government of the German Empire to terms and end the war.

带着对我正在采取的步骤的庄严甚至悲剧性的深刻认识以及它所涉及的重大责任，但在毫不犹豫地服从我认为我的宪法义务的情况下，我建议国会宣布德意志帝国政府最近的做法实际上无异于对美国政府和人民的战争；它正式接受强加给它的交战国地位，并立即采取措施，不仅使国家处于更彻底的防御状态，而且运用其一切力量和资源使德意志帝国政府达成协议并结束战争。

What this will involve is clear.

这将涉及什么是显而易见的。

It will involve the utmost practicable cooperation in counsel and action with the governments now at war with Germany, and, as incident to that, the extension to those governments of the most liberal financial credit, in order that our resources may so far as possible be added to theirs.

它将涉及与目前与德国交战的政府在咨询和行动方面进行最切实可行的合作，并且随之而来的是向这些政府提供最自由的金融信贷，以便我们的资源尽可能地增加到他们的资源中。

It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the incidental needs of the Nation in the most abundant and yet the most economical and efficient way possible.

它将涉及组织和动员国家所有物质资源，以尽可能最丰富、最经济和最有效的方式供应战争物资并满足国家的偶然需要。

It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all respects but particularly in supplying it with the best means of dealing with the enemy's submarines.

它将涉及海军在各个方面的直接全面装备，特别是为其提供对付敌方潜艇的最佳手段。

It will involve the immediate addition to the armed forces of the United States already provided for by law in case of war at least five hundred thousand men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle of universal liability to service, and also the authorization of subsequent additional increments of equal force so soon as they may be needed and can be handled in training.

它将涉及立即向法律规定的美国武装部队中增加至少五十万人，在我看来，这些人应该根据普遍服役责任的原则进行选择，并且还包括在需要并可以在训练中处理时授权随后增加同等兵力。

It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits to the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be sustained by the present generation, by well conceived taxation.

当然，它还涉及向政府提供足够的信贷，我希望这种信贷能够持续下去，只要当代人能够通过精心设计的税收公平地维持这些信贷。

I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to base the credits which will now be necessary entirely on money borrowed.

我之所以说在税收公平的范围内维持下去，是因为在我看来，将现在所需的信贷完全建立在借入的资金上是最不明智的。

It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to protect our people so far as we may against the very serious hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of the inflation which would be produced by vast loans.

我谨以最崇高的敬意敦促我们，尽我们所能保护我们的人民免受巨额贷款造成的通货膨胀可能造成的非常严重的困难和灾难。

In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our own preparation and in the equipment of our own military forces with the duty- for it will be a very practical duty-of supplying the nations already at war with Germany with the materials which they can obtain only from us or by our assistance.

在采取实现这些目标的措施时，我们应该始终牢记明智之举，即尽可能少地干扰我们自己的准备工作和我们自己军队的装备，因为这将是一项非常实际的义务，向已经与德国交战的国家提供他们只能从我们这里或通过我们的援助才能获得的物资。

They are in the field and we should help them in every way to be effective there.

他们在现场，我们应该以各种方式帮助他们，让他们在现场发挥作用。

I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executive departments of the Government, for the consideration of your committees, measures for the accomplishment of the several objects I have mentioned.

我将冒昧地通过政府的几个行政部门提出实现我所提到的几个目标的措施，供你们的委员会审议。

I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them as having been framed after very careful thought by the branch of the Government upon which the responsibility of conducting the war and safeguarding the Nation will most directly fall.

我希望您能愉快地处理这些问题，因为它们是政府部门经过深思熟虑后制定的，指挥战争和保卫国家的责任将最直接地落在政府部门身上。

While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the world what our motives and our objects are.

当我们做这些事情，这些意义深远的事情时，让我们非常清楚，并向全世界清楚地表明我们的动机和目标是什么。

My own thought has not been driven from its habitual and normal course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and I do not believe that the thought of the Nation has been altered or clouded by them.

我自己的思想并没有因为过去两个月的不幸事件而脱离其习惯性和正常的轨道，我也不相信国家的思想已经被这些事件改变或笼罩。

I have exactly the same things in mind now that I had in mind when I addressed the Senate on the twenty-second of January last, the same that I had in mind when I addressed the Congress on the third of February and on the twenty-sixth of February.

我现在所想的事情与我去年一月二十二日在参议院发表讲话时所想的一模一样，也与我在二月三日和二月二十六日向国会发表讲话时所想的一模一样。

Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the really free and self governed peoples of the world such a concert of purpose and of action as will henceforth insure the observance of those principles Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people.

我们现在的目标和当时一样，是在世界生活中维护和平与正义的原则，反对自私和独裁的权力，并在世界上真正自由和自治的人民中建立这样一种目标和行动的协调一致，以确保今后这些原则得到遵守。在涉及世界和平和人民自由的地方，中立不再可行或可取，对和平与自由的威胁在于独裁政府的存在由有组织的力量支持，完全由他们的意志控制，而不是由人民的意志控制。

We have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances.

在这种情况下，我们看到了最后的中立。

We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized states.

我们正处于一个时代的开端，在这个时代中，各国及其政府之间将坚持遵守与文明国家的公民个人相同的行为标准和对错误行为的责任标准。

We have no quarrel with the German people.

我们与德国人民没有争执。

We have no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and friendship.

我们对他们没有任何感情，只有同情和友谊。

It was not upon their impulse that their government acted in entering this war.

他们的政府介入这场战争并不是出于他们的冲动。

It was not with their previous knowledge or approval.

这并不是他们事先知情或批准的。

It was a war determined upon as wars used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use their fellow men as pawns and tools.

这是一场战争，就像过去不快乐的日子里的战争一样，当时统治者根本不征求人民的意见，战争是为了王朝的利益或一小群野心勃勃的人的利益而挑起和发动的，这些人习惯于利用同胞作为棋子和工具。

Self governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of affairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and make conquest.

自治国家不会在邻国中布满间谍，也不会策划阴谋活动来造成某种关键的局势，从而给他们提供打击和征服的机会。

Such designs can be successfully worked out only under cover and where no one has the right to ask questions.

这种设计只有在秘密的情况下才能成功地制定出来，而且任何人都无权提出问题。

Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression, carried, it may be, from generation to generation, can be worked out and kept from the light only within the privacy of courts or behind the carefully guarded confidences of a narrow and privileged class.

精心设计的欺骗或侵略计划，可能是代代相传的，只能在法庭的私密范围内或在狭隘特权阶级的精心保护的秘密背后制定并保密。

They are happily impossible where public opinion commands and insists upon full information concerning all the nation's affairs.

幸运的是，在公众舆论主导并坚持要求全面了解所有国家事务的情况下，这是不可能的。

A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations.

除非民主国家结成伙伴关系，否则永远不可能维持坚定的和平协调一致。

No autocratic government could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants.

任何专制政府都不能被信任会对其保持信心或遵守其契约。

It must be a league of honor, a partnership of opinion.

它必须是一个荣誉联盟，一个意见伙伴关系。

Intrigue would eat its vitals away; the plottings of inner circles who could plan what they would and render account to no one would be a corruption seated at its very heart.

阴谋会吞噬它的要害；那些能够计划自己的事情而不向任何人负责的核心圈子的阴谋，将是一种根深蒂固的腐败。

Only free people can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own.

只有自由的人民才能坚定地坚持自己的目标和荣誉，以实现共同的目标，并优先考虑人类的利益而不是任何狭隘的自身利益。

Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to our hope for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and heartening things that have been happening within the last few weeks in Russia?

难道不是每个美国人都觉得过去几周在俄罗斯发生的美好而令人振奋的事情为我们对世界未来和平的希望增添了信心吗？

Russia was known by those who knew it best to have been always in fact democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the intimate relationships of her people that spoke their natural instinct, their habitual attitude towards life.

那些最了解俄罗斯的人都知道，俄罗斯在内心深处始终是民主的，在她所有重要的思想习惯中，在她的人民的所有亲密关系中，都表达了他们的自然本能，他们对生活的习惯态度。

The autocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in origin, character, or purpose; and now it has been shaken off and the great, generous Russian people have been added in all their naive majesty and might to the forces that are fighting for freedom in the world, for justice, and for peace.

占据其政治结构顶峰的独裁政权，尽管它一直存在，而且其权力的现实是可怕的，但实际上在起源、特征或目的上都不是俄罗斯的；而是俄罗斯的。现在它已经被摆脱了，伟大而慷慨的俄罗斯人民以其天真的威严和力量加入到为世界自由、正义与和平而战的力量中。

Here is a fit partner for a League of Honor.

这是荣誉联盟的合适合作伙伴。

One of the things that has served to convince us that the Prussian, autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace Within and without, our industries and our commerce.

让我们相信普鲁士独裁政权不是、也永远不可能成为我们朋友的一件事是，从这场战争一开始，它就在我们毫无戒心的社区，甚至我们的政府办公室中布满了间谍，并在各地制造犯罪阴谋，破坏我们的国家统一意见、我们内外的和平、我们的工业和商业。

Indeed it is now evident that its spies were here even before the war began; and it is unhappily not a matter of conjecture but a fact proved in our courts of justice that the intrigues which have more than once come perilously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the industries of the country have been carried on at the instigation, with the support, and even under the personal direction of official agents of the Imperial Government accredited to the Government of the United States.

事实上，现在很明显，它的间谍甚至在战争开始之前就已经在这里了。不幸的是，这不是猜测问题，而是我们法院所证明的事实：不止一次危险地接近扰乱和平和扰乱国家工业的阴谋，是在派驻美国政府的帝国政府官方特工的煽动、支持甚至个人指导下进行的。

Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we have sought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon them because we knew that their source lay, not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German people towards us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish designs of a Government that did what it pleased and told its people nothing.

即使在检查这些事情并试图根除它们的过程中，我们也力求对它们做出尽可能慷慨的解释，因为我们知道它们的根源并非德国人民对我们的任何敌对情绪或目的（毫无疑问，他们和我们一样对它们一无所知），而只是一个政府的自私计划，它为所欲为，对人民一无所获。

But they have played their part in serving to convince us at last that that Government entertains no real friendship for us and means to act against our peace and security at its convenience.

但他们发挥了自己的作用，最终让我们相信，该政府对我们没有真正的友谊，并打算在方便时对我们的和平与安全采取行动。

That it means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted note to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence.

这意味着在我们家门口煽动敌人反对我们，截获的给墨西哥城德国部长的信就是有力的证据。

We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know that in such a Government, following such methods, we can never have a friend; and that in the presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no assured security for the democratic Governments of the world.

我们接受这一充满敌意的挑战，因为我们知道，在这样一个政府中，采用这样的方法，我们永远不可能有朋友；在其有组织的力量存在的情况下，总是等待着实现我们不知道的目的，世界上的民主政府就不可能有保证的安全。

We are now about to accept gauge of battle with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power.

我们现在即将接受与这个自由的天然敌人进行战斗的标准，如有必要，我们将动用全国的全部力量来制止和消除其主张和权力。

We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included: for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience.

我们很高兴，现在我们看到了没有虚假伪装的事实，他们为世界的最终和平和包括德国人民在内的各国人民的解放而奋斗：为大小国家的权利以及世界各地的人们选择自己的生活方式和服从的特权而奋斗。

The world must be made safe for democracy.

必须让世界变得安全以实现民主。

Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.

它的和平必须建立在经过考验的政治自由的基础上。

We have no selfish ends to serve.

我们没有任何自私的目的。

We desire no conquest, no dominion.

我们不想要征服，不想要统治。

We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make.

我们不为自己寻求任何赔偿，也不为我们自愿做出的牺牲寻求任何物质补偿。

We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind.

我们只是人类权利的捍卫者之一。

We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.

当这些权利像信仰和国家自由一样得到保障时，我们就会感到满意。

Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for.

正因为我们的战斗没有怨恨，没有自私的目标，除了我们希望与所有自由人民分享的东西外，我们不为自己谋求任何东西，所以我有信心，我们将作为交战者毫无激情地开展我们的行动，并自豪地遵守我们自称为之奋斗的权利和公平竞争的原则。

I have said nothing of the Governments allied with the Imperial Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor.

我没有提及与德意志帝国政府结盟的政府，因为他们没有对我们发动战争，也没有挑战我们捍卫我们的权利和荣誉。

The Austro-Hungarian Government has, indeed, avowed its unqualified endorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German Government, and it has therefore not been possible for this Government to receive Count Tarnowski, the Ambassador recently accredited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary; but that Government has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna.

事实上，奥匈帝国政府已经公开表示，它无条件地支持和接受德意志帝国政府现在毫不掩饰地采取的鲁莽和无法无天的潜艇战，因此，该国政府不可能接待奥匈帝国和王国政府最近派驻该国政府的大使塔尔诺夫斯基伯爵；但该政府实际上并未在海上对美国公民发动战争，因此我冒昧地推迟了我们与维也纳当局关系的讨论，至少目前如此。

We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of defending our rights.

我们只有在明显被迫参加这场战争的情况下才会参加这场战争，因为没有其他手段来捍卫我们的权利。

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in enmity towards a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck.

作为交战方，我们会更容易以正义和公平的高度精神行事，因为我们的行动没有敌意，不是对人民怀有敌意，也不是想要给他们带来任何伤害或不利，而只是武装反对一个不负责任的政府，这个政府抛弃了所有人性和权利的考虑，正在胡作非为。

We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early reestablishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us,- however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our hearts.

让我再说一遍，我们是德国人民的真诚朋友，我们最渴望的是早日重建我们之间互惠互利的亲密关系——无论他们暂时多么难以相信这是我们的心声。

We have borne with their present Government through all these bitter months because of that friendship,-exercising a patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible.

由于这种友谊，我们与他们现任政府一起度过了所有这些痛苦的月份，表现出耐心和克制，否则这是不可能的。

We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in our daily attitude and actions towards the millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the Government in the hour of test.

令人高兴的是，我们仍然有机会以我们日常的态度和行动，向生活在我们中间、分享我们生活的数以百万计出生于德国、具有本土同情心的男女证明这种友谊，并且我们将自豪地向所有在考验时刻实际上忠于邻国和政府的人证明这一友谊。

They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance.

他们中的大多数人都是真正、忠诚的美国人，就好像他们从来不知道任何其他的忠诚或效忠一样。

They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and purpose.

他们将立即与我们站在一起，谴责和限制少数可能有不同想法和目的的人。

If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and there and without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few.

如果有不忠的，就予以严厉镇压；但是，即使它抬起头来，也只会偶尔抬起头来，而且除了少数无法无天和恶毒的人之外，它不会表现出任何表情。

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you.

国会先生们，我在向你们发表讲话时履行了这一职责，这是一项令人痛苦和压抑的职责。

There are, it may be many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us.

我们可能还要经历数月的激烈考验和牺牲。

It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance.

带领这个伟大的爱好和平的人民陷入战争，陷入所有战争中最可怕和灾难性的战争，这是一件可怕的事情，文明本身似乎也处于平衡之中。

But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts,-for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own Governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.

但权利比和平更宝贵，我们将为我们一直以来最关心的事情而战——民主，为那些屈服于权威的人在自己的政府中发表意见的权利，为小国家的权利和自由，为自由人民的团结而实现普遍的权利统治，为所有国家带来和平与安全，并最终使世界本身自由。

To such a task we can dedicate our Eves and our fortunes, every thing that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured.

为了完成这样的任务，我们可以奉献我们的生命和我们的财富，我们的一切和我们所拥有的一切，带着那些知道这一天已经到来的人的自豪感，美国有幸为她所珍视的诞生、幸福和和平的原则付出她的鲜血和力量。

God helping her, she can do no other.

上帝保佑她，她别无选择。