历届美国总统简介：亚伯拉罕·林肯

亚伯拉罕·林肯（Abraham Lincoln，1809年2月12日－1865年4月15日），美国政治家、思想家，黑人奴隶制的废除者。第16任美国总统，其任总统期间，美国爆发内战，史称南北战争，林肯坚决反对国家分裂。他废除了叛乱各州的奴隶制度，颁布了《宅地法》、《解放黑人奴隶宣言》。林肯击败了南方分离势力，维护了美利坚联邦及其领土上不分人种、人人生而平等的权利。内战结束后不久，林肯遇刺身亡，是第一个遭遇刺杀的美国总统，也是首位共和党籍总统，曾位列最伟大总统排名第一位。林肯是美国最有作为的总统之一（其他3位为乔治·华盛顿、富兰克林·罗斯福、托马斯·杰斐逊）。 最新版5美元纸币正面是亚伯拉罕·林肯的照片。

2006年，亚伯拉罕·林肯被美国的权威期刊《大西洋月刊》评为影响美国的100位人物第1名。[1-2] 

英国《泰晤士报》2008年组织专家委员会对43位美国总统分别以不同的标准进行“最伟大总统”排名，亚伯拉罕·林肯列为第一。

 

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky. Growing up in the countryside, he made extraordinary efforts to educate himself while working on a farm and in a store. He said, “somehow I could read and write”. He was a captain in the U.S. Army and then spent eight years as a lawyer. His partner said Lincoln’s “ambition was a little engine that knew no rest."

 

Lincoln was a one-term member of the House of Representatives, but failed to get a seat in the U.S. Senate. He campaigned for years against slavery, calling it a “monstrous injustice”. In his speeches, he continually reminded people that “the authors of the Declaration of Independence…’did consider all men were created equal’”. He was elected as the United States’ 16th President in November 1860.

 

Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural¹ Address: "You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it." Despite this, the American Civil War started on April 12, 1861. Lincoln sent 75,000 troops to the South to “preserve the Union”. At Gettysburg in 1863, he said the War had created a new birth of freedom in the nation.

 

Lincoln was re-elected for a second term in 1864 after building the Republican Party into a strong national organization. He had already issued the Emancipation² Proclamation that ended slavery. He promised to rebuild post-War America but was assassinated³ in April 1865. Lincoln’s death marked the first assassination⁴ of a U.S. president. He is continually considered to be one of the three greatest ever Presidents.

 

 

1 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

2 emancipation   

n.（从束缚、支配下）解放

参考例句：

• We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

4 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。