1937年1月20日，星期三
My fellow countrymen：
同胞们：
When four years ago we met to inaugurate a President，the Republic，single－minded in anxiety，stood in spirit here．We dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a vision—to speed the time when there would be for all the people that security and peace essential to the pursuit of happiness．We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the temple of our ancient faith those who had profaned it；to end by action，tireless and unafraid，the stagnation and despair of that day．We did those first things first．
4年前，当我们聚在一起举行总统就职典礼时，合众国忧心如焚，群情激奋。我们致力于实现一个理想——让全体人民为追求幸福所必不可少的安全与和平环境早日到来。我们合众国人民立下誓言：要把玷污我们传统信仰的人赶出庙堂；要坚韧不拔地、无所畏惧地用行动来结束当时的萧条和失望，我们首先解决了这些当务之急。
Our covenant with ourselves did not stop there．Instinctively we recognized a deeper need—the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever－rising problems of a complex civilization．Repeated attempts at their solution without the aid of government had left us baffled and bewildered．For，without that aid，we had been unable to create those moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to make science a useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind．To do this we knew that we must find practical controls over blind economic forces and blindly selfish men．
我们的誓约没有就此止步。我们本能地认识到更深一层的需要——需要通过政府找到实现共同目标的手段，为每个人去解决复杂文明社会所日益产生的问题。试图不要政府的帮助来解决这些问题，已使我们屡屡碰壁和一筹莫展。因为，没有这种帮助，我们就无法从道德上来控制科学的使用；有了这种必要的控制，才能把科学变成人类的有用的仆人，而不是无情的主人。为了做到这一点。我们知道必须找到切实可行的办法，控制那些盲目的经济力量和利令智昏的人。
We of the Republic sensed the truth that democratic government has innate capacity to protect its people against disasters once considered inevitable，to solve problems once considered unsolvable．We would not admit that we could not find a way to master economic epidemics just as，after centuries of fatalistic suffering，we had found a way to master epidemics of disease．We refused to leave the problems of our common welfare to be solved by the winds of chance and the hurricanes of disaster．
我们合众国人民认识到一条真理：民主政府生来就有能力保护人民，使他们免遭一度认为是不可避免的灾难，解决一度认为是不可解决的问题。我们听天由命地忍受了几个世纪之后，找到了控制瘟疫的办法，所以，我们不承认找不到控制经济瘟疫的办法。我们拒绝把我们的共同福利问题交给机会的阵风和灾难的狂飙去摆布。
In this we Americans were discovering no wholly new truth；we were writing a new chapter in our book of self－government．
在这方面，我们美国人不是在发明全新的真理。而是在为我们的自治史册写下新的篇章。
This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Constitutional Convention which made us a nation．At that Convention our forefathers found the way out of the chaos which followed the Revolutionary War；they created a strong government with powers of united action sufficient then and now to solve problems utterly beyond individual or local solution．A century and a half ago they established the Federal Government in order to promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to the American people．
今年是制宪会议召开150周年，那次会议使我们成为一个国家。在那次会议上，我们的前辈为摆脱革命战争后的混乱局面找到了出路；他们创立了步调一致、坚强有力的政府，使我们足以在当时和现在都能解决个人或地方根本无法解决的问题。他们在一个半世纪以前建立起联邦政府，目的就是要增进美国人民的普遍福利，确保美国人民的自由幸福。
Today we invoke those same powers of government to achieve the same objectives．
今天，我们要同样运用政府的力量来达到同样的目标。
Four years of new experience have not belied our historic instinct．They hold out the clear hope that government within communities，government within the separate States，and government of the United States can do the things the times require，without yielding its democracy．Our tasks in the last four years did not force democracy to take a holiday．
4年来的新经验并没有使我们的历史直觉落空。这4年清楚地展现了一条希望之路，即地方政府、州政府和合众国政府都能按时代的要求行事而无需放弃民主。我们过去4年的任务并没有迫使民主去休假。
Nearly all of us recognize that as intricacies of human relationships increase，so power to govern them also must increase—power to stop evil；power to do good．The essential democracy of our Nation and the safety of our people depend not upon the absence of power，but upon lodging it with those whom the people can change or continue at stated intervals through an honest and free system of elections．The Constitution of 1787did not make our democracy impotent．
我们几乎所有的人都认识到，由于人类关系日趋复杂，支配这种关系的权力也必须加强——包括抑恶的权力和扬善的权力，我国的基本民主和人民安全的依据不是不要权力，而是通过诚实和自由的选举制度，把权力交给可以由人民定期更换或连任的人。1787年的宪法并没有使我们的民主软弱无力。
In fact，in these last four years，we have made the exercise of all power more democratic；for we have begun to bring private autocratic powers into their proper subordination to the publics government．The legend that they were invincible—above and beyond the processes of a democracy—has been shattered．They have been challenged and beaten．
事实上，在过去4年中，我们使一切权力的行使都变得更加民主；因为我们已经开始使私人专断的种种权力恰当地服从于大众的政府。所谓它们不可战胜——凌驾于民主程序之上而又超脱于民主程序之外——这个神话已经被粉碎，它们遭到了挑战，并且已经被击败。
Our progress out of the depression is obvious．But that is not all that you and I mean by the new order of things．Our pledge was not merely to do a patchwork job with secondhand materials．By using the new materials of social justice we have undertaken to erect on the old foundations a more enduring structure for the better use of future generations．
我们摆脱萧条所取得的进步是显而易见的。但是，那还不是你们和我所说的事物新秩序的全部，我们的誓言并非仅仅用旧材料做些修补工作。我们已经在用社会公正这种新材料，开始从原有基础上建立更持久的结构，以便未来几代人更好地利用。
In that purpose we have been helped by achievements of mind and spirit．Old truths have been relearned；untruths have been unlearned．We have always known that heedless self－interest was bad morals；we know now that it is bad economics．Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays．We are beginning to wipe out the line that divides the practical from the ideal；and in so doing we are fashioning an instrument of unimagined power for the establishment of a morally better world．
在这方面，我们已经得益于思想和精神上所取得的成就。古老的真理得到了重温；假话虚话遭到了抛弃。我们一直知道，无动于衷的自私自利是不道德的，我们现在还知道，它是不利于经济的。经济繁荣的建筑师们曾自诩符合实际，但随着繁荣的破灭，人们都已经深信，从长远来看经济道德会带来效益。我们正在开始消除实际与理想之间的界线；通过这种做法，我们正在为建立道德更高尚的世界，制作一件力大无比的工具。