VOA慢速英语2014 林肯正在努力让肯塔基州和密苏里州联盟

 

Lincoln Struggles to Keep Kentucky, Missouri in the Union 林肯正在努力让肯塔基州和密苏里州联盟

his is The Making of a Nation, with VOA Learning English. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly. 

And I’m Christopher Cruise.

By the end of May 1861, 11 slave-holding, Southern states had withdrawn¹ from the United States. They formed their own independent nation. They called it the Confederate States of America.

Two other slave-holding states -- Kentucky and Missouri -- chose to stay in the Union. But no one knew how long they would remain.

Amy Murrell Taylor is a historian. She has a special interest in Kentucky. She says the North and the South each knew Kentucky was important.

“It was a source of manpower for either side. It was also obviously the geographic² middle ground in this war. And as such, it contained some really important transportation routes that both armies wanted.”   

President Abraham Lincoln feared that if Kentucky seceded³, Missouri and Maryland might withdraw from the Union, too. The Confederacy would then become too powerful to fight, he thought.

President Lincoln wanted Kentucky firmly on the side of the Union. But he decided⁴ not to put Kentucky under military rule, as he had done in Maryland. Historian Amy Murrell Taylor says Lincoln wanted to treat the situation “delicately.”

“It's about maintaining that support of Kentuckians."

Lincoln sent people to Kentucky to urge newspapers to publish pro-union statements. Lincoln’s administration also provided weapons and supplies for home guard forces -- local, pro-Union militias⁵.

In the end, Kentucky stayed in the Union. But Amy Murrell Taylor says Kentuckians expected Lincoln to keep his promise about slavery. Lincoln had said that he did not want to interfere⁶ with slavery where it already existed.

Missouri was another slave state in question. Its governor tried hard to take Missouri out of the Union. He called a convention to decide the question. But a majority of the delegates refused to vote for secession.

The governor organized state soldiers. The Lincoln administration organized home guard forces. The two sides clashed several times. Some civilians⁷ were killed.

Finally, the United States Army seized government buildings in the state capital. Army troops forced state officials, including the governor, to flee.

Missouri, too, would remain in the Union. Missouri and Kentucky -- along with Delaware, Maryland, and eventually West Virginia – were called border states. They all stayed in the Union. But many people in these areas supported the Confederacy.  Historian Amy Murrell Taylor says the border states seemed to fight their own civil war.

“We have towns that divide, cities that divide, communities, families that divide from one another.” Some of the worst guerrilla violence of the war happened in the border states. As she observed, they were “fought over, fought through, and fought in.”  

1 withdrawn   

vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出

参考例句：

• Our force has been withdrawn from the danger area.我们的军队已从危险地区撤出。
• All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries.一切外国军队都应撤回本国去。

2 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

3 seceded   

v.脱离，退出( secede的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The Republic of Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903. 巴拿马共和国于1903年脱离哥伦比亚。
• One of the states has seceded from the federation. 有一个州已从联邦中退出。 来自辞典例句

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

6 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

7 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。