世界经典英语演讲（世界经典英语美文读本）最新章节_周铭著

08 论妇女选举权
On Women’s Right to Vote (1873)

苏珊·安东尼(Susan B. Anthony)

名人档案

苏珊·安东尼（Susan B. Anthony, 1820—1906），美国女权运动先驱，与伊丽莎白·卡迪·斯坦顿（Elizabeth Cady Stanton）同为妇女运动的领袖，为争取妇女选举权做出了巨大贡献，被称为“女权运动中的拿破仑”。

简介与鉴赏

在女性尚无法享有投票权的1872年，苏珊·安东尼因为在总统选举中投票而被捕，判罚100美元。此后她通过全国演讲的方式，抨击剥夺女性选举权的非法性与不合理性。此演讲为安东尼于1873年在接受法院传讯时的辩词。

演讲多引用宪法、元勋之语、政治文件和报告，借重男性权威阐述自己主张的正当性。同时，安东尼将妇女投票权与黑人解放相比较，为女性解放事业找到了合适的类比，增加了主张的可接受度。由于安东尼以及其他女性斗士的持续争取，美国终于在1920年8月通过了第19宪法修正案，赋予女性投票权。

英文正文

Friends and Fellow Citizens,

I stand before you tonight under indictment ^[1] for the alleged ^[2] crime of having voted at the last presidential election,without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights,guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:

“We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity,provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare,and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,do ordain ^[3] and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens;nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people—women as well as men. And it is a downright ^{[4]mockery to talk to women oftheir enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are deniedthe use of the only means of securing them provided by thisdemocratic-republican government—the ballot} .

For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement ^[5] of one entire half of the people is to pass a bill of attainder ^[6] , or an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are for ever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious ^[7] aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy ^[8] of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe.An oligarchy of wealth, where the right govern the poor; an oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant;or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African,might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makesfather, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the motherand sisters, the wife and daughters of every household—which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension 9 , discord and rebellion into every home of thenation .

Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all defi ne a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled ^[10] to vote and hold offi ce

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no State has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities.Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several States is today null ^[11] and void, precisely as in every one against Negroes.

单词/词组

[1] indictment ⁸ : n. 控诉，谴责

[2] alleged ⁸ : adj. 声称的，涉嫌的

[3] ordain ⁸ : v. 规定，决定

[4] downright ⁸ : adj. 十足的，直率的

[4] disfranchisement ⁸ : n. 剥夺公民权

[6] attainder ⁸ : n. 剥夺财产与公民权

[7] odious ⁸ : adj. 令人厌恶的

[8] oligarchy ⁸ : n. 寡头政治

[9] dissension ⁸ : n. 意见分歧

[10] entitled ⁴ : 有资格的

[11] null ⁸ : adj. 无法律效力的

中文译文

朋友们、同胞们：

今晚我站在你们面前，被控在上次总统选举中因没有法定权利参与投票而犯有所谓的选举罪。今晚我要向你们证明，我参加投票选举不但无罪，相反只是行使了我的公民权。这是国家宪法确保我和全体合众国公民所拥有的权利，任何一个州都无权剥夺。

联邦宪法的序言写着：

“我们，合众国的人民，为建设更完善的联邦，树立正义，确保国内安宁，设立共同防务，增进公共福祉，保障我们及子孙后代永享自由之福，特为美利坚合众国制定本宪法。”

组成这个联邦的是我们人民，不是男性白人公民，也不是男性公民，而是全体人民。我们组成联邦，不是赐予人民自由之福，而是为了保障这一福祉，保障的群体不只是我们中的一半及子孙后代的一半，而是全体人民——包括女人和男人。对着妇女们大谈她们享有自由之福，却剥夺她们享有这个民主共和国所提供、确保自由之福的唯一手段——投票权，这真是天大的讽刺。

任何州政府，如果把性别作为参加选举的资格，必然导致整整半数人民被剥夺选举权。这等于通过一项剥夺公民权的法案或一项事后追加的法案，因此违背了我国的最高法律，使妇女及其后代中的所有女性永远无权享受自由之福。对女性而言，这个政府没有来自被统治者赞同的正当权力。这个政府不是民主政体，也不是共和政体，而是可憎的专制政体，是可恨的性别独裁，是地球上迄今为止最可恶的专制。或许富人统治穷人的财富独裁，受教育者统治无知者的知识独裁，甚至撒克逊人统治非洲人的种族独裁，人们还能稍为忍受；而这种性别独裁，却使得每个家庭中的父亲、兄弟、丈夫、儿子成为母亲、姊妹、妻子、女儿的统治者，使一切男子成为统治者，一切妇女沦为奴婢，使全国的每个家庭都产生不和、倾轧和悖逆。

韦伯斯特、伍斯特和布维尔都认为，合众国的公民，就是享有投票权和有权供职的美国人。