(杨老师SAT阅读笔记）美国总统的历史功绩谁与评说？

(杨老师SAT阅读笔记）美国总统的历史功绩谁与评说？

美国黑奴弗雷德利克道格拉斯在林肯公园自由者纪念碑揭幕仪式上的演讲，让我们留意到林肯高大上的阴影下被人们忽略的一面：

"无论何时何地，真相总是恰如其分且赏心悦目。而最恰如其分和赏心悦目的，莫过于论及一名伟大的公众人物。即便哲人其萎英魂缈缈，他依然是万口传诵争相效法的楷模。必须承认：即使今天现身在我们为纪念这位伟人而竖立的丰碑之前，真相强迫我承认：按字面完全的意思理解，林肯非我族类，非我楷模。从他的利益，他的圈子，他的思维习惯，以及他的偏见来看，他是一名白人。

Truth is proper and beautiful at all times and in all places, and it is never more proper and beautiful in any case than when speaking of a great public man whose example is likely to be commended for honor and imitation long after his departure to the solemn shades, the silent continents of eternity. It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.

他首先是一名白人的总统，完全致力于为白人谋利益。从他执政伊始那几年，他是时刻准备着拒绝，延缓，甚至牺牲本国有色人种的人权来促进白人的福祉的。从他所接受的教育到他的个人情感，他是美国人中的美国人。他仅凭一个宗旨就坐上了总统的宝座，即反对奴隶制的扩张。他在推行这项政策的理由中，有效忠他自己族类利益的爱国动机与主因。为了保护，维护以及维持现存奴隶制各州的奴隶制，亚伯拉罕林肯和其它美国总统一样，会毫不犹豫地拔出国家之劍。他随时准备执行美国宪法中拟行保障在奴隶制州里维持奴隶制的条文。明白了这一点，我向诸位白人兄弟们承认，对他的崇敬是高山仰止的。自始至终，你们诸位都是他倾情贯注萦绕于心的目标。你们是亚伯拉罕林肯的子女。我们撑死了也就是她的养子养女，收养过来的孩子，因环境所迫权宜之需的孩子。对诸位来说，赞美他，缅怀他，四处为他竖立丰碑，墙上贴满他的照片，奉他为圭臬，那都是顺理成章的。. . . . 不过，在你们的滚滚财源中，在你们忠诚爱国的正义感里这么做，我恳求诸位不要小看我们今天在此揭幕供大家瞻仰之举。因为，虽然说林肯为大家拯救了整个国家，他为我们松开了一种捆绑。按照杰弗逊的说法，承受一分钟这样的捆绑，比数十年遭受诸位父辈揭竿而起反对的那种压迫还难受。"

(He was preeminently the white man's President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men. He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country. In all his education and feeling he was an American of the Americans. He came into the Presidential chair upon one principle alone, namely, opposition to the extension of slavery. His arguments in furtherance of this policy had their motive and mainspring in his patriotic devotion to the interests of his own race. To protect, defend, and perpetuate slavery in the states where it existed Abraham Lincoln was not less ready than any other President to draw the sword of the nation. He was ready to execute all the supposed constitutional guarantees of the United States Constitution in favor of the slave system anywhere inside the slave states... Knowing this, I concede to you, my white fellow-citizens, a pre-eminence in this worship at once full and supreme. First, midst, and last, you and yours were the objects of his deepest affection and his most earnest solicitude. You are the children of Abraham Lincoln. We are at best only his step-children; children by adoption, children by forces of circumstances and necessity. To you it especially belongs to sound his praises, to preserve and perpetuate his memory, to multiply his statues, to hang his pictures high upon your walls, and commend his example....But while in the abundance of your wealth, and in the fullness of your just and patriotic devotion, you do all this, we entreat  you to despise not the humble offering we this day  unveil to view; for while Abraham Lincoln saved for  you a country, he delivered us from a bondage, according to Jefferson, one hour of which was worse  than ages of the oppression your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose.)

历史有时候会跟我们开玩笑。我把道格拉斯的话稍改几个字：

他首先是一名白人的总统，完全致力于为白人谋利益。从他执政伊始那几年，他是时刻准备着拒绝，延缓，甚至牺牲本国有色人种的人权来促进白人的福祉的。从他所接受的教育到他的个人情感，他是美国人中的美国人。他仅凭一个宗旨就坐上了总统的宝座，即推行美国至上的扩张。他在推行这项政策的理由中，有效忠他自己族类利益的爱国动机与主因。为了保护，维护以及维持各州的就业率，他和其它美国总统一样，会毫不犹豫地拔出国家之劍。"

我是在说谁呢？