Friends and Fellow-Citizens: The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, 新选举一位公民来管理美国行政政府的时期已经不远了，而且你们将要指定某人被赋予这一重要信任的想法的时刻已经到来， it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. 在我看来，我现在应该把我下定的决心通知你，拒绝在将要做出选择的人中被考虑，这是恰当的，尤其是因为这可能有助于更明确地表达公众的声音。 I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country—and that, in withdrawing the tender of service which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both. 我恳请你们同时公正地向我保证，我作出的这个决定并没有严格考虑到一个尽职尽责的公民与他的国家之间所有关的关联因素，而且，在我保持沉默的情况下可能意味着撤回服务承诺时，我对你未来利益的热情丝毫没有减弱，对你过去的善意也没有缺乏感激之情，但我完全相信这一决定对两者都是合适的。 The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 接受并连续担任这个同样的职位，这个职位是您们两次行使选举权赋予给我的。出于使命感以及对您们共同愿望的尊重，我欣然接受了。担任总统很早的时候，我就一直有一个无法忽视的愿望，那就是回到我不得已而放弃的那种退休生活中去。在上次选举之前，我已经有了强烈的愿望这样做，这甚至让我准备了一篇演讲来向你们宣布这一点；但由于当时我们与国外的关系存在令人困惑的地方，并且处于关键节点，出于对这些问题的成熟思考，以及与那些被授权给予我信任的人们的一致意见，促使我放弃了这个想法。 习惯用语： cloth with 承担 conduce to 有助于 apprise sb of 通知某人 appertain to 属于 diminution of 减少 hitherto in 迄今为止 inclination to 倾向于 critical posture 关键节点