（五月十二日）

TEXT OF PRESIDENT's SPEECH

The text of President Wilson's speech follows:

It warms my heart that you should give me such a reception, but it is not of myself that I wish to think tonight, but of those who have just become citizens of the United States. This is the only country in the world which experiences this constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the multiplication of their own native people. This country is constantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntary association with it of great bodies of strong men and forward-looking women. And so, by the gift of the free will of independent people it is constantly being renewed from generation to generation by the same process by which it was originally created. It is as if humanity had determined to see to it that this great nation, founded for the benefit of humanity, should not lack for the allegiance of the people of the world.

You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God. Certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great Government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human race. You have said, "We are going to America," not only to earn a living, not only to seek the things which it was more difficult to obtain where you were born, but to help forward the great enterprises of the human spirit—to let men know that everywhere in the world there are men who will cross strange oceans and go where a speech is spoken which is alien to them, knowing that, whatever the speech, there is but one longing and utterance of the human heart, and that is for liberty and justice.

LOOKING ONLY FORWARD

And while you bring all countries with you, you come with a purpose of leaving all other countries behind you—bringing what is best of their spirit, but not looking over your shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what you intended to leave in them. I certainly would not be one even to suggest that a man ceases to love the home of his birth and the nation of his origin—these things are very sacred and ought not to be put out of our hearts—but it is one thing to love the place where you were born and it is another thing to dedicate yourself to the place to which you go. You cannot dedicate yourself to America unless you become in every respect and with every purpose of your will thorough Americans. You cannot become thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American, and the man who goes among you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and Stripes.

My urgent advice to you would be not only always to think first of America, but always, also, to think first of humanity. You do not love humanity if you seek to divide humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can be welded together only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellowmen. He has lost the touch and ideal of America, for America was created to unite mankind by those passions which lift and not by the passions which separate and debase.

We came to America, either ourselves or in persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of things that divide, and to make sure of the things that unite. It was but an historical accident no doubt that this great country was called the "United States", and yet I am very thankful that it has the word‘united’in its title; and the man who seeks to divide man from man, group from group, interest from interest, in the United States is striking at its very heart.

It is a Very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking of those of you who have just sworn allegiance to this great Government, that you were drawn across the ocean by some beckoning finger of hope, by some belief, by some vision of a new kind of justice, by some expectation of a better kind of life.

No doubt you have been disapppointed in some of us: some of us are very disappointing. No doubt you have found that justice in the United States goes only with a pure heart and a right purpose, as it does everywhere else in the world. No doubt what you found here didn't seem touched for you, after all, with the complete beauty of the ideal which you had conceived beforehand.

But remember this, if we had grown at all poor in the ideal, you brought some of it with you. A man does not go out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not hope for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief. That is the reason that I, for one, make you welcome. "

REALIZING A DREAM

If I have in any degree forgotten what America was intended for, I will thank God if you will remind me.

I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of what America was to be, and I hope you brought the dreams with you. No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any highenterprise.

Just because you brought dreams with you, America is more likely to realize the dreams such as you brought. You are enriching us if you came expecting us to be better than we are.

See, my friends, what that means. It means that Americans must have a consciousness different from the consciousness of every other nation in the world. I am not saying this with even the slightest thought of criticism of other nations. You know how it is with a family. A family gets centred on itself if it is not careful, and is less interested in the neighbors than it is in it's own members.

So a nation that is not constantly renewed out of new sources is apt to have the narrowness and prejudice of a family. Whereas, America must have this consciousness, that on all sides it touches elbows and touches hearts with all the nations of mankind.

TOO PROIUD TD FIGHT

The example of America must be a special example. The example of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world and strife is not.

There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

So, if you come into this great nation as you have come, voluntarily seeking something that we have to give, all that we have to give is this: We cannot exempt you from work. No man is exempt from work anywhere in the world. I sometimes think he is fortunate if he has to work only with his hands and not with his head. It is very easy to do what other people give you to do, but it is very difficult to give other people things to do. We cannot exempt you from work; we cannot exempt you from the strife and the heart-breaking burden of the struggle of the day—that is common to mankind everywhere. We cannot exempt you from the loads that you must carry; we can only make them light by the spirit in which they are carried. That is the spirit of hope, it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit of justice.

When I was asked, therefore, by the Mayor and the committee that accompanied him to come up from Washington to meet this great company of newly admitted citizens I could not decline the invitation. I ought not to be away from Washington, and yet I feel that it has renewed my spirit as an American.

In Washington men tell you so many things every day that are not so, and I like to come and stand in the presence of a great body of my fellow-citizens, whether they have been my fellow citizens a long time or a short time, and drink, as it were, out of the common fountains with them, and go back feeling that you have so generously given me the sense of your support and of the living vitality in your hearts, of its great ideals which made America the hope of the world."

总统演说词

你们如此热烈地欢迎我，使我暖意盈怀。但我今晚所想的不是我自己，而是你们这些刚刚成为美国公民的朋友们。世界上唯有美国在不断地、反复地经历着自我更新。其它国家都是依靠本国国民之自我繁衍而发展壮大，唯有美国持续不断地从新的源泉那里汲取新生力量，此新源泉便是那些身强力壮的男人和远见卓识的女人，他们自愿地聚集在美国的旗帜下。因此，正是这些独立自主之人民，凭其天赋之自由意志，使美国一代又一代地不断获得新生。而这个更新之过程，正是美国开国历程之延续。看来，人类决心要使这个伟大之国家，得到全世界人民之拥戴，因为它建国之目的，就是为人类谋利益。

你们刚刚宣誓：要效忠于美国。可是对谁忠诚呢？不是别人，正是上帝。你们绝对不是要忠于目前暂时代表这个庞大政府的那些官员。你们宣誓要忠于一个崇高之理想，一个伟大之原则，一个人类宏伟之希望。你们说，“我们来到美国”，不仅仅是为了谋生，也不仅仅是为了寻求一些在出生地难于觅得的东西，而是为了帮助促进人类精神之伟大事业——为了让人们知道，世界各地都有人愿意漂洋过海来到这个陌生的国度，来到这个语言不通的地方。那是因为他们知道，不管这是何种语言，人类只有一种渴望，只有一种心声，那就是渴望自由，渴望正义。

一往直前

你们从各个不同的国家来到这里，抱着一个目的：即想要离开原来的国度——当你们这样做时，你们已经将那些国家中最美好之精神带到了这里。希望你们不要再回头看，不要将你们原本打算留在那里的一切再留驻心头，恋恋不舍。我说这些当然不是要你们不再爱你们的故乡、你们的祖国，我不想成为这样一种人——事实上，这些原本是最神圣的，而且也是不应该被忘却的——然而，爱你们的故乡是一回事，献身于你们所去之地是另一回事。如果你们不在各个方面，全心全意地去做一个彻底的美国人，那么，你们就不可能献身于美国。如果你们仍然只想到你们自己的那个群体，那么，你们就不可能成为一名完完全全的美国人。美国不是由某些相互隔绝之群体组成的。如果一个人认为，他只属于美国的某一特定民族团体，那他就还不是一名美国人。如果你们当中有人到这里来，只是想利用一下美国国籍，那他将是一位愧对星条旗之不肖子孙。

我最热切地劝告你们，不仅总是要首先想到美国，而且总是要首先想到人类。倘使你们试图把人类分成几大互相猜忌之阵营，你们就不会热爱人类。人类只有用爱、同情和正义，才能将其联结成一体，而不是用猜忌和仇恨。对于那些试图利用同胞之热情来为自己牟取个人资本之人，我感到很遗憾。他已经失去了美国式之风格和理想，因为美国是用高昂之激情，而不是用分裂和卑下之激情，去团结全人类。

我们来到美国，有的是我们这些新移民，有的是从祖辈就移民至此。无论怎样，所有人都努力完善人类之理想，让人们看到要比他们以前所曾见过的更加美好的东西，驱除那些分裂之因素，设法确保那些促进人类团结之因素。毫无疑问，这个伟大的国家取名为“合众国”，这不是历史的偶然之举。然我感到非常欣慰的是，这个名字中带有“合众”两个字。倘使有人试图在美国将这类人与那类人分开，将这个群体与那个群体分开，将这种利益与那种利益分开，这无异于是刺中了她的心脏。

想到你们这些刚刚宣过誓，要忠于这个伟大政府之朋友们，我就感到`饶有兴味，你们飘洋过海来到这里，在某种希望的召唤之下，出于某种信念，靠着某种对新型正义之想象，靠着某种对美好生活之憧憬。

无疑，你们已经对某些东西感到失望了：我们这里有些东西是非常令人扫兴的。毋庸置疑，你们也已经发现，在美国，正义还只是一种美好的感情，一个正确的目的。这正如世界上其他地方一样。毫无疑问，你们原先都曾怀有某种理想，在此种理想之美丽光芒之映照下，你们也已发现，这里有些东西似乎不能如你们所愿。

但是，请你们记住：如果说我们生长于一个匮乏理想之境遇中，那么你们正拥有这份财富。一个人不会去寻求那本不属于他的东西。一个人也不会去期待他根本不相信的东西。如果我们当中的一些人已经忘记了美国之信仰，那么，至少你们已经把这种信念之重建任务，植入心底。这就是我作为个人欢迎你们之原因。

实现美国梦

如果我在某种程度上已经忘记了美国之目的，那么，我将感谢上帝，让你们提醒了我。

我是土生土长之美国人。你们曾经梦想美国是什么样子，我希望，你们一直拥有这份美国梦。一个不会幻想之人，决不可能实现伟大之希望，也不可能从事崇高之事业。

正因为你们拥有这份美国梦，美国就很有希望实现这些梦想，正如你们所拥有的。你们来到这里，期望我们的明天比今天更加美好。正是你们，使我们的生活更加丰富，更有活力。

朋友们，请听明白我的意思。我的意思是说，美国人必须具有一种意识，一种与世界上其它国家完全不同之意识。我这样说，一点也没有批评其它国家的意思。你们都知道家庭之情况。作为一个家庭，只有不计小隙，只有把注意力更多地集中到自己家庭成员身上，而不是在邻居身上，才能把一家人凝聚在一起。

一个持续不断地从新的源泉那里获得新生之国家，也应当如此。只有这样，才能避免家庭之狭隘和偏见。因此，美国必须具有这种意识：即它应在各个方面与世界各国保持密切之联系，保持各种各样之交往。

耻于冲突

美国应该作出一个不同凡响之榜样，这便是和平之榜样。然而，这种和平不仅仅是一种不打仗之和平，而且是一种医治战争创伤，扩大其世界性影响之和平，是一种不冲突之和平。

人会由于高傲而耻于和人争斗。国家也会由于一贯坚持正义，而不必用强迫之手段，使别国心悦诚服，不必以力服人。

所以，既然你们已经来到这个伟大的国家，那就请你们自愿地去寻求某些东西，寻求某些我们所能给予你们的东西。我们所能给予的恐怕只有这点：我们无法让你们不工作。在世界的任何地方，决不会有不工作之人。我有时想，只需动手而不必动脑之人，真是有福气。只要动手去做别人交代你们之工作，那是很容易的；然而，要使别人有工作可干，却是非常困难的。我们无法使你们免除工作；我们无法使你们免除冲突，也无法使你们卸去当今之战争所带来的极其沉重之负担——世界各地之人都一样负着重担。我们也无法使你们免除你们必须承担之重任；我们所能做的，只是用一种精神来减轻由重任、重担所带来之压力。这种精神就是希望、自由和正义。

因此，当市长及其陪同前来之委员会，邀请我从华盛顿去该市，会见这一大群新近加入美国籍之公民时，我盛情难却。尽管我不应该离开华盛顿。我觉得，我作为一名美国公民，“华盛顿”一直振奋我的精神。

在华盛顿，有人会告诉你们，这里每天发生的许许多多事情，其实并不一定如此。我喜欢站在一大群同胞面前，和他们同饮一口泉，可以说是，和他们同甘共苦，不管他们是早已移民之老同胞，还是新近才加入美国籍之新同胞。一想到这些，我就不由地感觉到，你们是如此慷慨地赐予我一种支持感，一种内心之活力，一种崇高之理想，以使美国成为世界希望之所在。