为啥有米国

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Today, we continue the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late seventeen hundreds. 今天，我们继续讲述18世纪末美国独立战争的故事。
Battles had been fought between Massachusetts soldiers and British military forces in the towns of Lexington and Concord. 马萨诸塞州士兵和英国军队在莱克星顿和康科德镇进行了战斗。
Yet, war had not been declared. Even so, citizen soldiers in each of the thirteen American colonies were ready to fight. 然而，双方还没有正式开战。即便如此，美国13个殖民地的公民士兵都准备好了战斗。
This was the first question faced by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 在宾夕法尼亚州费城召开的第二届大陆会议面临的第一个问题是：
Who was going to organize these men into an army? Delegates to the Congress decided that the man for the job was George Washington. 谁来把这些人组成一支军队?国会代表们决定的人选是乔治·华盛顿。
He had experience fighting in the French and Indian War. 他有参加法国-印第安战争的经验。
He was thought to know more than any other colonist about being a military commander. 人们认为乔治·华盛顿比其他任何殖民者都更适合担任军事指挥官。
Washington accepted the position. But he said he would not take any money for leading the new Continental Army. 华盛顿接受了这个职位。但他表示，他不会接受任何报酬来领导新的大陆军。
Washington left Philadelphia for Boston to take command of the soldiers there. 华盛顿离开费城前往波士顿去指挥那里的士兵。
Delegates to the Second Continental Congress made one more attempt to prevent war with Britain. 第二届大陆会议的代表们又一次试图阻止与英国交战。
They sent another message to King George. They asked him to consider their problems and try to find a solution. 他们致信乔治国王，请他考虑这个问题并设法找到解决办法。
The king would not even read the message. 国王甚至不愿读信。
You may wonder: Why would the delegates try to prevent war if the people were ready to fight? 你可能会想：如果人民已经摩拳擦掌，那么为什么代表们还要试图阻止与英国交战呢?
The answer is that most members of the Congress -- and most of the colonists -- were not yet ready to break away from Britain. 答案是，大多数国会议员——以及大多数殖民者——还没有准备好脱离英国。
They continued to believe they could have greater self-government and still be part of the British Empire. 他们仍然相信他们可以享受更多的自治，仍然是大英帝国的一部分。
But that was not to be. 但事实并非如此。
Two days after the Congress appointed George Washington as army commander, 会议任命乔治·华盛顿为军队指挥官的两天后，
colonists and British troops fought the first major battle of the American Revolution. 殖民者和英国军队打响了美国独立战争的第一场大战。
It was called the Battle of Bunker Hill, although it really involved two hills: 其被称为邦克山战役，尽管邦克山包括两座山：
Bunker and Breed's. Both are just across the Charles River from the city of Boston. 邦克山和布里德山，这两座山都位于波士顿市，查尔斯河从中间流过。
Massachusetts soldiers dug positions on Breed's Hill one night in June, seventeen seventy-five. 1775年6月的一天晚上，马萨诸塞州的士兵在布里德山上挖战壕。
By morning, the hill was filled with troops. 到了早晨，山上已经布满了军队。
The British started to attack from across the river. The Americans had very little gunpowder. 英国人开始从河对岸发起进攻。而殖民地只有很少的火药。
They were forced to wait until the British had crossed the river and were almost on top of them before they fired their guns. 他们不得不等到英国人渡河，攻到跟前的时候再开火，。
Their commander reportedly told them: Do not fire until you see the whites of the British soldiers' eyes. 据报道，他们的指挥官下令：除非看到英国士兵的眼白否则不允许开枪。
The British climbed the hill. The Americans fired. A second group climbed the hill. The Americans fired again. 英军爬上了这座山，殖民地民兵开火了。英军第二次爬上山，殖民地民兵再次开火。
The third time, the British reached the top, but the Americans were gone. 第三次，英军成功登上了顶峰，而殖民地军民不见人影。
They had left because they had no more gunpowder. 他们之所以离开是因为没有火药了。
The British captured Breed's Hill. More than one thousand had been killed or wounded in the attempt. 英国人占领了布里德山。此次战争中英军死伤人数达1000多人。
The Americans lost about four hundred. 殖民地军民损失了大约400人。
That battle greatly reduced whatever hope was left for a negotiated settlement. 那次战斗大大减少了英军和殖民地谈判和解的希望。
King George declared the colonies to be in open rebellion. 乔治国王宣布殖民地叛乱。
And the Continental Congress approved a declaration condemning everything the British had done since seventeen sixty-three. 大陆会议通过了一项声明，谴责英国自1763年以来的所作所为。
The American colonists fought several battles against British troops during seventeen seventy-five. 1775年，殖民者与英国军队开战多次。
Yet the colonies were still not ready to declare war. 然而殖民地还没有准备好正式宣战。
Then, the following year, the British decided to use Hessian soldiers to fight against the colonists. 第二年，英国决定使用黑森士兵来对抗殖民者。
Hessians were mostly German mercenaries who fought for anyone who paid them. 黑森士兵多数是德国雇佣兵，他们为任何付钱给他们的人而战。
The colonists feared these soldiers and hated Britain for using them. 殖民者害怕这些黑森士兵，他们对英国的做法深恶痛绝。
At about the same time, Thomas Paine published a little document that had a great effect on the citizens of America. 大约同一时间，托马斯·潘恩发表了一份对美国公民产生巨大影响的文件。
He named it, "Common Sense." It attacked King George, as well as the idea of government by kings. It called for independence. 他称之为《常识》。该文件反对乔治国王，以及国王统治的思想，要求独立。
About one hundred fifty thousand copies of "Common Sense" were sold in America. 《常识》在美国大约售出15万本。
Everyone talked about it. As a result, the Continental Congress began to act. 成了街头巷尾议论的话题。于是，大陆会议开始采取行动。
It opened American ports to foreign shipping. It urged colonists to establish state governments and to write constitutions. 它对外开放了殖民地港口，敦促殖民者建立州政府并制定宪法。
On June seventh, delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a resolution for independence. 6月7日，弗吉尼亚州代表理查德·亨利·李提出了独立的议案。
The resolution was not approved immediately. Declaring independence was an extremely serious step. 该议案并没有立即获得通过。宣布独立是极为重要的一步。
Signing such a document would make delegates to the Continental Congress traitors to Britain. 大陆会议的代表签署这样的文件意味着背叛英国。
They would be killed if captured by the British. 如果被英国人俘虏，他们就会被杀死。
The delegates wanted the world to understand what they were doing, and why. 大陆会议的代表们希望全世界了解他们在做什么，以及为什么要这样做。

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So they appointed a committee to write a document giving the reasons for their actions. 因此，他们指定一个委员会，撰写了一份文件，说明他们要求独立的理由。
One member of the committee was the Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. 委员会成员之一是弗吉尼亚人托马斯·杰斐逊。
He had already written a report criticizing the British form of government. 他曾经写过一篇批评英国政府形式的文章。
So the other committee members asked him to prepare the new document. 因此，委员会的其他成员请他来准备这份新文件。
They said he was the best writer in the group. They were right. 他们说杰斐逊文笔最好，的确如此。
It took him seventeen days to complete the document that the delegates approved on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. 杰斐逊花了17天时间完成了，1776年7月4日，代表们通过了这份文件。
It was America's Declaration of Independence. 即美国的独立宣言。
Jefferson's document was divided into two parts. The first part explained the right of any people to revolt. 杰斐逊的文件分为两部分。第一部分阐述了人民反抗的权利。
It also described the ideas the Americans used to create a new, republican form of government. 还描述了美国人用来创建新的共和政体的想法。
The Declaration of Independence begins this way: 《独立宣言》开头是这样写的：
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another, 在有关人类事务的发展过程中，当一个民族必须解除其和另一个民族之间的政治联系，
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them, 并在世界各国之间依照自然法则和上帝的意旨，接受独立和平等的地位时，
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 出于人类舆论的尊重，必须把他们不得不独立的原因予以宣布。
Jefferson continued by saying that all people are equal in the eyes of God. 杰斐逊接着说，在上帝眼中，人人生而平等。
Therefore, governments can exist only by permission of the people they govern. 而政府的正当权力，则应得到他们统治的人民的允许。
He wrote: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 他写道：我们认为下面这些真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物者赋予他们若干不可剥夺的权利，其中包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. 为了保障这些权利，人类才在他们之间建立政府，而政府之正当权力，是经被治理者的同意而产生的。
The next part states why the American colonies decided to separate from Britain: 《独立宣言》下一部分阐述了北美殖民地为什么决定独立：
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it. 当任何形式的政府对这些目标具破坏作用时，人民便有权力改变或废除它，
This is why the Americans were rebelling against England. 这就是美国人反抗英国的原因。
The British believed the Americans were violating their law. Jefferson rejected this idea. 英国人认为美国人违反了他们的法律。杰斐逊拒绝了这个想法。
He claimed that the British treatment of the American colonies violated the natural laws of God. 他声称英国对美洲殖民地的处理违反了上帝的自然法则。
He and others believed a natural law exists that is more powerful than a king. 杰斐逊等人相信，自然法规高于王权。
The idea of a natural law had been developed by British and French philosophers more than one hundred years earlier. 自然法的概念是一百多年前由英国和法国哲学家提出的。
Jefferson had studied these philosophers in school. 杰斐逊在学校里研究过这些哲学家的思想。
In later years, however, he said he did not re-read these ideas while he was writing the Declaration. 然而，在后来的几年里，他说他在写《独立宣言》时没有再读过这些概念。
He said the words came straight from his heart. 这些话都是他的肺腑之言。
The second part of the Declaration lists twenty-seven complaints by the American colonies against the British government. 独立宣言的第二部分列举了美洲殖民地对英国政府的27条控诉。
The major ones concerned British taxes on Americans and the presence of British troops in the colonies. 主要问题是英国对殖民地的征税以及英国军队驻扎在殖民地。
After the list of complaints, Jefferson wrote this strong statement of independence: 控诉之后，杰斐逊写下了这样一份铿锵有力的独立宣言:
That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; 这些联合一致的殖民地从此是自由和独立的国家，并且按其权利也必须是自由和独立的国家，
that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; 它们取消一切对英国王室效忠的义务，它们和大不列颠国家之间的一切政治关系从此全部断绝，而且必须断绝；
and that as Free and Independent States they have the full Power to levy War, conduct Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, 作为自由独立的国家，它们完全有权宣战、缔和、结盟、通商，
and do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. 和采取独立国家有权采取的一切行动。
The last statement of the Declaration of Independence was meant to influence the delegates into giving strong support for that most serious step -- revolution: 《独立宣言》的结尾部分是号召代表们为最重要的一步——革命给予强烈的支持。
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. 为了支持这篇宣言，我们坚决信赖上帝的庇佑，以我们的生命、我们的财产和我们神圣的名誉，相互保证，共同宣誓。