纪念美国独立日
·白 焰·
不少国家的国庆节是庆祝一个政府的诞生,或者一个体制的建立,或者一个国王的生日。这些国家大都有较长的历史和较为固定的国界。由于政府的更迭和朝代的换替,这些国家时不时地改变国号或国体或兼而有之。国庆于是成为当政者的庆典,国庆节也随之是统治者的纪念日。当然,切实庆祝国家而不是政体的开创,在一些历史较短的国家时有发生。以色列刚刚庆祝完建国60周年。苏联和南斯拉夫解体后的众共和国也大张旗鼓地庆祝它们的建国日。如果国家和政体是两回事,这些新国家的建国日是真正意义上的国庆节。
7月4日是美国独立日。严格地说,美国独立日不是国庆节。即便当作国庆节,它也不同于其它国家的国庆节。这是因为美国独立日不是建政的日子,也不是开国的日子,更不是独立得以实现的日子。它是美国人民纪念费城大陆会议1776年正式签署通过《独立宣言》的日子。232年前,杰弗逊(五人起草小组主要成员)起草的《独立宣言》庄严地宣布美国脱离英国而成为独立国家。然而,这仅仅是一纸宣言而已,没有任何法律效果。杰弗逊等56位逆反分子的签字对宗主国英国不构成任何义务或约束。相反,独立谈何容易。把激昂文字变成事实——从《独立宣言》到独立战争的胜利,足足有6年之隔,成败难见分晓。对于分裂、叛变,英国政府的逮捕、折磨、死刑是必然结果。五人起草小组之一的富兰克林说,如果我们不“吊”在一起(合伙),我们将被分别吊死。侥幸的是,美国人获得了法国人的援助,《巴黎和平条约》在1783年签定,英国终于被迫承认美国独立。作为对比,其它国家的国庆节标志着胜利之后的权力转交和政权奠基,美国的独立日乃象征着事成之前的独立理念和必胜信念。换言之,其它国家把辉煌成果当作开国之本,美国把尚未实现的抱负当作开国之先(13个州于1777年7月4日第一个独立日开始庆祝)。
美国人的独立、自由、自治的理念来自17和18世纪欧洲出现的启蒙哲学家,尤其是英国的霍布斯和洛克。同时,英国殖民统治者也给予了美国人适当的民主自由,美国人由此也尝到了平等的甜头和自治的机会。美国人当时自认为是英国人,享有英国人的权利。英国政府也号召美国人发扬爱国精神,为“英法7年战争”的耗费慷慨解囊。但是,当英国政府频繁施以重税时,美国人很生气。倒不是他们比英国人付出的要多(其实,英国人赋税的比例比美国人的要高),而是他们没有被征求意见、没有被征得许可——英国议会里只有英国代表,没有美国代表。结果,美国人的道义平衡感遭到破坏,美国人作为“英国人”的尊严受到损害。他们要求谈判,英国政府继而采取高压措施和武力镇压。美国人的抗税斗争于是发展为谋求独立的斗争。英国人启蒙了美国人自治,美国人用领会到的独立思想开启了结束英国殖民统治的武装起义。在这个意义上,美国独立战争不是受激于乌托邦式的宏伟变革理想,它是根基于人民已经当家的切实体验和保护所得政治权利的自然本能。无论怎样看,和其它大革命相比,美国革命是最保守的革命。它的本质是修复,而不是颠覆。然而,鼓动革命的《独立宣言》却提出了在当时看来是最激进的自然权利和社会契约的理论。33岁的杰弗逊把英国哲学家洛克的理论搬到宣言里,可谓以其人之道,还治其国之身。
《独立宣言》并不是战争宣言,也不是战争的开始,更不是战争的结束。独立战争在这之前已经进行了1年3个月。在时间上,《独立宣言》是承上启下的中继;在性质上,《独立宣言》是援引道义(如果不是开脱自己的话)的声辩。它总的意图是说明割断关系是不得已,争取独立是天意。同时,它表白美国人已经走上分裂的不归路,暴力已经取代和谈。美国人自豪于意识和态度上的这一转折,其程度胜于独立战争的军事胜利。当其它国家纪念它们的开国元勋时,美国纪念它的开国哲学。这真是桌尔不群。
把《独立宣言》当作独立日的主意最初来源于亚当斯。作为五人起草小组的另一个,亚当斯当初没能自己执笔《独立宣言》,为此他一直后悔。1776年7月3日,亚当斯在给妻子的信里提到宣言的起草完毕及签字和庆祝。他说庆祝的方式可为游行、游戏、体育、祷告、表演。确实如此,在每年的7月4日,美国人选用一种平静和自然的方式渡过独立日。在近来的独立日,美国人奔赴游行、观看球赛、燃放鞭炮、欢聚亲友和邻居、在自家后院烤肉。这些远非其它国家的官方庆典、阅兵来得隆重。其实,庆祝独立就是庆祝人生,就是让生活充分体现原来的本色。
1825年,即《独立宣言》49年以后,杰弗逊回忆道,《独立宣言》是呈给世界法庭的呼吁,是美国心思的申述,是时代精神的恰当表达。对于庆祝独立日的方式,杰弗逊倾向于发自内心的纪念,一种成熟的反思。今天,《独立宣言》几乎得到全世界的承认。诚然,不是所有人都理解自然权利的真谛:“人生而平等,造物者赋予他们若干不可剥夺的权利,包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。”也不是所有人都领会社会契约的精髓:“当政府损害人民的权利时,人民有权改变、废黜政府,并且有权创立新的政府。”但是这些并没有冲淡《独立宣言》的深远意义,这些只是说明思想启蒙在全世界还要继续,还要铺开,还要深入。
美国国会一直到1870年才把独立日定为联邦节日,但各个州政府必须而且实际通过了法令,表示同意贯彻。这就是《美国宪法》制定的联邦制两极政府的分权所在。《独立宣言》和《美国宪法》是姊妹篇,一个是废除旧体制的号角,一个是建立新国家的方案。亚当斯和杰弗逊分别是美国第二和第三届总统,是政敌,但都死在同一天——1826年7月4日,美国独立日。在今年(2008年)的7月4日,让我们也庆祝或纪念一下美国独立日,怀着平静的心情。也许谈不上两者,只是品味、感怀一下。美国独立日是美国人的节日,独立则是每个人心中的节日。
- posted on 07/04/2008
Another interesting piece to share. Happy Holiday!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"What kind of men were the 56 signers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and who, by their signing, committed an act of treason against the crown? To each of you, the names Franklin, Adams, Hancock, and Jefferson are almost as familiar as household words. Most of us, however, know nothing of the other signers. Who were
they? What happened to them?
I imagine that many of you are somewhat surprised at the names not there: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry. All were elsewhere.
Ben Franklin was the only really old man. Eighteen were under 40; three were in their 20s. Of the 56 almost half - 24 - were judges and lawyers. Eleven were merchants, 9 were landowners and farmers, and the remaining 12 were doctors, ministers, and politicians.
With only a few exceptions, such as Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, these were men of substantial property. All but two had families. The vast majority were men of education and standing in their communities. They had economic security as few men had in the 18th century.
Each had more to lose from revolution than he had to gain by it. John Hancock, one of the richest men in America, already had a price of 500 pounds on his head. He signed in enormous letters so that his Majesty could now read his name without glasses and could now double the reward. Ben Franklin wryly noted: "Indeed we must all hang together, otherwise we shall most assuredly hang separately." Fat Benjamin Harrison of Virginia told tiny Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "With me it will all be over in a minute, but you, you will be dancing on air an hour after I am gone."
These men knew what they risked. The penalty for treason was death by hanging. And remember, a great British fleet was already at anchor in New York Harbor.
They were sober men. There were no dreamy-eyed intellectuals or draft card burners here. They were far from hot-eyed fanatics, yammering for an explosion. They simply asked for the status quo. It was change they resisted. It was equality with the mother country they desired. It was taxation with representation they sought. They were all conservatives, yet they rebelled.
It was principle, not property, that had brought these men to Philadelphia. Two of them became presidents of the United States. Seven of them became state governors. One died in office as vice president of the United States. Several would go on to be U.S. Senators. One, the richest man in America, in 1828 founded the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. One, a delegate from Philadelphia, was the only real poet, musician and philosopher of the signers (it was he, Francis Hopkinson not Betsy Ross who designed the United States flag).
Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, had introduced the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776. He was prophetic in his concluding remarks: "Why then sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American Republic. Let her arise not to devastate and to conquer but to reestablish the reign of peace and law.
"The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us. She demands of us a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the
unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repost.
"If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American Legislatures of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of all of those whose memory has been and ever will be dear to virtuous men and good citizens."
Though the resolution was formally adopted July 4, it was not until July 8 that two of the states authorized their delegates to sign, and it was not until August 2 that the signers met at Philadelphia to actually put their names to the Declaration.
William Ellery, delegate from Rhode Island, was curious to see the signers' faces as they committed this supreme act of personal courage. He saw some men sign quickly, "but in no face was he able to discern real fear." Stephan Hopkins, Ellery's colleague from Rhode Island, was a man past 60. As he signed with a shaking pen, he
declared: "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."
The Americans Who Risked Everything
"Most Glorious Service"
Even before the list was published, the British marked down every member of Congress suspected of having put his name to treason. All of them became the objects of vicious manhunts. Some were taken. Some, like Jefferson, had narrow escapes. All who had property or families near British strongholds suffered.
• Francis Lewis, New York delegate saw his home plundered and his estates in what is now Harlem, completely destroyed by British Soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse.
• William Floyd, another New York delegate, was able to escape with his wife and children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut, where they lived as refugees without income for seven years. When they came home they found a devastated ruin.
• Philips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated and his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still working in Congress for the cause.
• Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber, crops, and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and family.
• John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at
long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without ever finding his family.
• Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton. The British occupied the town of Princeton, and billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college library in the country.
• Judge Richard Stockton, another New Jersey delegate signer, had rushed back to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. The family found refuge with friends, but a Tory sympathizer betrayed them. Judge Stockton was pulled from bed in the night and brutally beaten by the arresting soldiers. Thrown into a common jail, he was deliberately starved. Congress finally arranged for Stockton's parole, but his health was ruined. The judge was released as an invalid, when he could no longer harm the British cause. He returned home to find his estate looted and did not live
to see the triumph of the revolution. His family was forced to live off charity.
• Robert Morris, merchant prince of Philadelphia, delegate and signer, met Washington's appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised arms and provisions which made it possible for Washington to cross the Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry.
• George Clymer, Pennsylvania signer, escaped with his family from their home, but their property was completely destroyed by the British in the Germantown and Brandywine campaigns.
• Dr. Benjamin Rush, also from Pennsylvania, was forced to flee to Maryland. As a heroic surgeon with the army, Rush had several narrow escapes.
• John Martin, a Tory in his views previous to the debate, lived in a strongly loyalist area of Pennsylvania. When he came out for independence, most of his neighbors and even some of his relatives ostracized him. He was a sensitive and troubled man, and many believed this action killed him. When he died in 1777, his last words to his tormentors were: "Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it [the signing] to have been the most glorious service that I have ever rendered to my country."
• William Ellery, Rhode Island delegate, saw his property and home burned to the ground.
• Thomas Lynch, Jr., South Carolina delegate, had his health broken from privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in the military. His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies and on the voyage he and his young bride were drowned at sea.
• Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., the other three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Florida, where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large landholdings and estates.
• Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia, was at the front in command of the Virginia military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, fire from 70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown piece by piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their headquarters into Nelson's palatial home. While American cannonballs were making a shambles of the town, the house of Governor Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in rage to the American gunners and asked, "Why do you spare my home?" They replied, "Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson cried, "Give me the cannon!" and fired on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to bits. But Nelson's sacrifice was not quite over. He had raised $2 million for the Revolutionary cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a newer peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson's property was forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, impoverished, a few years later at the age of 50.
The Americans Who Risked Everything
Lives, Fortunes, Honor
Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.
And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark.
He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to that infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York Harbor known as the hell ship Jersey, where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his sons' lives if he would recant and come out for the King and parliament. The utter despair in this man's heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: "No."
The 56 signers of the Declaration Of Independence proved by their every deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most magnificent curtain line in history. "And for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." - posted on 07/04/2008
这是一篇政治意识形态情结特别严重的文章。
如果不以成败论英雄,《独立宣言》与《共产党宣言》没什么区别,都是一种政治理想。《共产党宣言》我没仔细读过,但根据我有限的理解,《共产党宣言》主张大家是一家人,大家按需分配,对财富的占有是平等的,这其实是人类很美好的理想。只是这种理想与人性太冲突,在当前的社会现实中很难实行。
至于以政府的诞生作为国庆日还是以《共产党宣言》的发表作为国庆日,实质是没有任何区别的。在这方面大费口水,不过是胜利者的一种浅薄的做秀。
“美国人的独立、自由、自治的理念来自17和18世纪欧洲出现的启蒙哲学家,尤其是英国的霍布斯和洛克。” 。《共产党宣言》的政治出身我想也是很哲学的。
“《独立宣言》并不是战争宣言,也不是战争的开始,更不是战争的结束。”,这是典型的美国盲目崇拜者的说法。没有战争美国能实现独立吗? 英国会因为《独立宣言》有良好的哲学背景就让美国人独立?
纪念美国独立日(白 焰)
Please paste HTML code and press Enter.
(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation