Women’s Right to Vote
苏珊·布朗内尔·安东尼 / Susan B. Anthony
苏珊·布朗内尔·安东尼（1820—1906），生于马萨诸塞州，曾经做过小学教师。身为一个独身妇女，她强烈地意识到妇女需要政治和经济上的独立。1851年，她遇到当时女权主义运动的另一领袖伊利莎白·凯蒂·斯坦顿，她们成了工作中的伙伴，终身保持着这一关系，而她们的合作关系决定了美国女权主义运动的进程。
Ace in the Hole
Understand these new words before you read this article.
1. alleged adj. 所谓的；声称的；被断言的
2. guarantee v. 保证；担保
3. preamble n. 序文；电报报头；先兆
4. disfranchisement n. 剥夺公民权
Friends and fellow citizens,
I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged 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 this 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 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 mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government—the ballot.
For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is to pass a bill of attainder, 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 forever 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 aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich 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 makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household—which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.
Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.
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 and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.
参考译文
朋友们，公民们：
今天晚上，我带着罪名站在你们面前。在上次总统选举时，我因为没有合法选举权投了票而被指控为有罪。今天晚上我将向你们解释，在这次选举中我不但没有犯罪，相反我只是行使了我的公民权，行使了《合众国宪法》赋予给我和全体美国公民的公民权。《合众国宪法》是任何州都无法否定的根本大法。
《合众国宪法》的序言说：
“我们，美国的人民，为了形成更完美的统一，建立正义，确保国内安定，提供正常防御，促进公众的幸福和保证我们自己和我们子孙后代的自由，特此建立这部《美利坚合众国宪法》。”
是我们，人民；不是我们，男性白人公民；也不是我们，男性公民；而是我们整个人民，形成统一的联邦。我们成立统一的联邦，不是给予自由，而是保证自由；自由不是我们当中的一半人和我们的子孙后代当中的一半人享受，而是全体人民——男人们和女人们享受。因而当妇女被剥夺了确保她们自由权利的唯一手段——选举权——的时候，却对她们谈什么自由之幸福，完全是彻头彻尾的讽刺。
……
对于任何一个国家来说，如果把性别规定为一种限制条件，它必将造成整整一半的人民被剥夺公民权。这样做就等于通过一项剥夺逃犯或死囚的政治权利的议案，即一项溯及已往的法律，因此这是对这个国家的最高法律的亵渎。根据这种做法，自由从妇女和她们的女性后代身上被夺走了。她们认为，如果得不到被统治者的允许，这个政府没有正当的权力；她们认为，这个政府不是民主政府，不是共和政府，它是个臭名昭著的独裁政府，是令人憎恨的性别寡头政权，是地球上最令人憎恨的独裁政权。人们可以忍受一个财富寡头政权——富人统治穷人的政权，可以忍受一个知识寡头政权——有学问的人统治没有学问的人的政权， 但是一个性别寡头统治，一个由各个家庭的父亲、兄弟、丈夫、儿子组成的寡头统治，一个使男人成为君主、女人成为臣民的寡头统治，将会把分裂、混乱和反叛带入这个国家的每个家庭之中。
韦氏词典、乌斯特词典和波维尔词典都把公民定义为美国的一个人，一个被赋予了选举权和参政权的人。
现在摆在我们面前并需要解决的唯一问题是：女人是人吗？我很难相信，反对我们的任何一个人会硬着心肠说女人不是人。那么既然是人，女人也就是公民，因此任何州都无权制定或执行任何剥夺她们公民特权或豁免权的法律。所以在几个州的宪法和法律中，那些歧视妇女的法律统统都是无效的，正如歧视黑人的法律是无效的一样。
历史链接
在1872年的总统大选中，安东尼带领一群纽约州的妇女到当地投票地点参加投票。因为当时妇女投票是非法的，所以她被逮捕并于1873年6月被传讯。在此之前，她前往纽约州北部的大部分地区发表了以下的演讲，说明剥夺妇女的选举权是不合理的。但她最终被判有罪并加以罚款，不过她拒付罚金，而且也没有人向她索取。
Practicing for Better Learning
Promote ＆ Promotion
promote
作动词：
(1) 促进，推动
例：policies to promote economic growth
促进经济增长的政策
(2) 促销，推销
例：The city has been promoted as a tourist destination.
这个城市一直被推广为旅游景点。
(3) 提升，晋升
例：She worked hard and was soon promoted to the manager.
她工作勤奋，不久被提升为经理。
作动词：
promotion
提升，晋级；推销，推广；促进；助长；增进，提倡
Chunks in Practice
Grammar analysis
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.
强调句结构：It is/was +句子的被强调部分+that/who+句子的其他成分。其中被强调部分可以是主语、宾语、状语等，但不可以强调谓语。
Now a Try
Translate the following sentences into English with the expressions in
the article.
1. 为了确保国内安定，特此建立颁布这部法令。
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2. 女人也是合法公民，那些歧视妇女的法律统统是无效的。
