马丁·范布伦（Martin Van Buren），美国第八任副总统（1833年－1837年）及第八任总统（1837年－1841年）。他是《美国独立宣言》正式签署后出生的第一位总统。

What can be more gratifying than such a retrospect as this?
有什么能比如此的回顾更让人心悦？

We look back on obstacles avoided and dangers overcome, on expectations more than realized and prosperity perfectly secured.
我们看到以往的障碍已被避免，危险被克服。看到期望不仅仅被实现，繁荣也完全得以保证。

To the hopes of the hostile, the fears of the timid, and the doubts of the anxious actual experience has given the conclusive reply.
对于敌人的妄想，懦夫的惧怕，和焦虑者的疑惑事实经历已做出完满的答复。

We have seen time gradually dispel every unfavorable foreboding, and our Constitution surmount every adverse circumstance dreaded at the outset as beyond control.
我们已看到时间逐渐排除每一个不利的预兆。并且，我们的宪法克服了那些在当初被认为是我们所无能为力而畏惧的每一个不利处境。

Present excitement will at all times magnify present dangers, but true philosophy must teach us that none more threatening than the past can remain to be overcome; and we ought (for we have just reason)to entertain an abiding confidence in the stability of our institutions and an entire conviction that if administered in the true from, character, and spirit in which they were established they are abundantly adequate to preserve to us, and our children the rich blessings already derived from them, to make our beloved land for a thousand generations that spot where happiness springs from a perfect equality of political rights.
当前的兴奋将在任何时候增大当前的危险。但真正的哲理一定会告诉我们，没有比以往更有威胁性的仍要去克服；并且我们应该保持对我们的机构的坚定信心，并深信只要以其创建时的真正形式，特点和精神来管理，它们将完全足够为我们，和我们的儿女保证那以往由它们所带来的丰富祝福。并把我们可爱的土地变成因完全平等政治权利而充满幸福的之处而持续千秋万代。

For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict adherence to the letter, and spirit of the Constitution as it was designed by those who framed it.
而我自己，我想宣布，那些将在我的祖国召唤我的这崇高职责上指导我的原则，必须严格依照，如同其构造者所设想的宪法的文字和精神。

Looking back to it as a sacred instrument carefully and not easily framed; remembering that it was throughout a work of concession and compromise; viewing it as limited to national objects; regarding it was leaving to the people and the States all power not explicitly parted with, I shall endeavor to preserve, protect, and defend it by anxiously referring to its provision for direction in every action.
我们回头把它看作一个仔细而艰难构造的神圣工具。牢记它经过一个让步和妥协的过程；把它看为仅限于国家事宜；认为它留给人民和各州所有不能明显分开的权力，我将努力通过在每一行动中，急切地参考其条款来寻求方向，来维持，保护和守卫它。

To matters of domestic concernment which it has entrusted to the Federal Government, and to such as relate to our intercourse with foreign nations I shall zealously devote myself; beyond those limits I shall never pass.
我将以极度热心投入到那些委托给联邦政府的国内事务，以及我们同外国交往有关的事务中；而我将决不逾越这些界限。

To enter on this occasion into a further or more minute exposition of my views on the various questions of domestic policy would be as obtrusive as it is probably unexpected.
在此时进一步详细叙述我对各种国内政策的观点将显得冒失而可能意外。

Before the suffrages of my countrymen were conferred upon me I submitted to them, with great precision, my opinions on all the most prominent of these subjects.
在同胞们把参政权授予我之前, 我已经非常准确地向他们提供了我关于这中间所有最显要的问题的观点。

Those opinions I shall endeavor to carry out with my utmost ability.
我将努力尽我所能来实施这些观点。