1789年4月30日乔治·华盛顿就任第一任总统演讲

追求卓越

美国人民的实验参议院和众议院的同胞们：
   
在人生沉浮中，没有一件事能比本月十四日收到你们送达的通知更使我焦虑不安。一方面，国家召唤我出任总统一职，对于她的召唤，我只能肃然从命。但我却十分偏爱、并曾选择了退隐，我还满怀奢望，矢志不移，决心以此作为我暮年的归宿。星转斗移，我越来越感到隐退的必要和亲切，因为喜爱之余，我已经习惯；还因为岁月催人渐老，身体常感不适。另一方面，国家召唤我担负的责任如此天大而艰巨，足以使国内最有才智和经验的人度德量力；而我天资愚钝，又没有民政管理的经验，应该倍觉自己能力的不足，因此必然感到难以担此重任。怀着这种矛盾的心情，我唯一敢断言的是，通过正确理解可能产生影响的各种情况来克尽职责，乃是我忠贞不渝的努力目标。我唯一敢祈望的是，如果我在执行这项任务时因沉溺于往事，或因由衷感到公民们对我高度的信赖，因而过分受到了影响，以致在处理从未经历过的大事时，忽视了自己的无能和消极，我的错误将会出于动机纯正而减轻，而大家在评判错误的后果时，也会适当宽忍产生这些动机的偏见。

既然这就是我在遵奉公众召唤就任现职时的感想，那么，在此宣誓就职之际，如不热情地祈求全能的上帝将是一件非常不当的事。因为上帝统治着宇宙，主宰看各国政府，它的神助能弥补人类的任何不足。愿上帝赐福，保佑一个为了美国人民的自由和幸福而组建的政府，保佑它为这些基本目的而作出奉献，保佑政治的各项行政措施在我负责之下都能成功地发挥作用。我相信，在向公众利益和私人利益的伟大缔造者献上这份崇敬时，这些话也同样表达了各位和广大公民的心声。没有人能比美国人更坚定不移地承认和崇拜掌管人类事务的上帝。他们在迈向独立国家的进程中，似乎每走一步都有某种天佑的迹象；他们在刚刚完成的联邦政府体制的重大改革中，如果不是因忠诚的感恩而得到某种回报，如果不是谦卑地期待着过去有所预示的赐福的到来，那么，通过众多截然不同的集团的平静思考和自愿赞同来完成改革，这种方式是难以同大多数政府在组建过程中所采用的方式相比的。在目前转折关头，我产生这些想法确实是深有所感而不能自已。我相信大家会和我怀有同感，即如果不仰仗上帝的力量，一个新生的自由政府就无法做到一开始就事事如意。
   
根据设立行政部门的条款，总统有责任“将他认为必要而适宜的措施提请国会审议”。但在目前与各位见面的这个场合，恕我不进一步讨论这个问题，而只是提一下伟大的宪法，它使各位今天欢聚一堂，它规定了各位的权限，指出了各位应该注意的目标。在这样的场合，更恰当、也更能反映我内心激情的做法不是提出具体措施，而是称颂将要规划和采纳这些措施的当选者的才能、正直和爱国心。我从这些高贵品格中看到了最可靠的保证：其一，任何地方偏见或地方感情，任何意见分歧或党派敌视，都不能使我们偏离全局观念和公平观点，即必须维护这个由不同地区和不同利益所组建的大联合政权；因此，其二，我国的政策将会以纯正不移的个人道德原则为基础，而自由政府将会以赢得民心和全世界尊敬的一切特点而显示其优越性。我对国家的一片热爱之心激励着我满怀喜悦地展望这幅远景，因为根据自然界的法则和发展趋势，在美德与幸福之间，责任与利益之间，恪守诚实宽厚的政策与获得社会繁荣幸福的硕果之间，有着密不可分的关系；因为我们应该同样相信，上帝亲自规定了永恒的秩序和权利法则，它决不可能对无视这些法则的国家慈颜含笑；因为人们理所当然地、满怀深情地、也许是最后一次地把维护神圣的自由之火和共和制政府的命运，系于美国人所遵命进行的实践上。
   
除了提请各位注意的一般事务外，在当前时刻，根据激烈反对共和制的各种意见的性质，或根据引起这些意见的不同程度，在必要时行使宪法第五条授予的权利究竟有多大益处，将依靠你们来加以判断和决定。在这个问题上，我无法从过去担任过的职务中找到借鉴，因此我不提具体建议，而是再一次完全信任各位对公众利益的辨别和追求；因为我相信，各位只要谨慎避免作出任何可能危及团结和政府利益的修订，或避免作出应该等待未来经验教训的修订，那么，各位对自由人特有权利的尊重和对社会安定的关注，就足以影响大家慎重考虑在何种程度上坚定不移地加强前者，并有利无弊地促进后者。

除上述意见外，我还要补充一点，而且觉得向众议院提出最恰当。这条意见与我有关，因此应当尽量讲得简短一些。我第一次荣幸地奉召为国家效劳时，正值我国为自由而艰苦奋斗之际，我对我的职责的看法要求我必须放弃任何俸禄。我从未违背过这一决定。如今，促使我作出这一同样决定的想法仍然支配着我，因此，我必须拒绝对我不相适应的任何所有个人津贴，因为这些津贴可能是列入并成为政府部门常设基金不可分割的一部分。同样，我必须恳求各位，在估算我就任的这个职位所需要的费用时，可以根据我的任期以公共利益所需的实际费用为限。

我已经把有感于这一聚会的想法告诉了各位，现在我就要向大家告辞；在此以前，我还要再一次以谦卑的心情祈求仁慈的上帝给予扶助。因为承蒙上帝的恩赐，美国人民有了深思熟虑的机会，有了为确保联邦的安全和幸福，用前所未有的一致意见来决定政府体制的权利；既然如此，上帝将同样明显地保佑我们逐步扩大眼界，稳定地进行协商，并采取明智的措施，而这些都是本届政府取得成功所必不可缺少的依靠。

aaron01

配上英语原文稿吧，这篇东西我们背过，学英语的时候：
Nothing filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month.On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time.
On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature, and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies.In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect, my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me,and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge.
In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed.
You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President, "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them.
In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so ,on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world.I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted on the hands of the American people.