James Garfield: Assassinated

詹姆斯·加菲尔德：遇刺

VOA Learning English presents America’s Presidents.
美国之音慢速英语介绍总统栏目。

Today we are talking about James Garfield. He was the 20^th president of the United States.
今天，我们来谈论詹姆斯·加菲尔德。他是美国第20任总统。

Garfield is not one of the best-known presidents. He served only 100 days before he was shot. Eleven weeks later, he died from his wounds.
加菲尔德不是最出名的总统之一。由于被枪杀，他仅仅上任了100天。11周后，他死于枪伤。

But even during Garfield’s short time in office, historians say his presidency had problems.
但即使他就任总统的时间很短，历史学家认为他的总统任内也存在一些问题。

Early life 早年生活

Like the president before him, Rutherford B. Hayes, Garfield was from the state of Ohio.
加菲尔德与他的前任总统拉瑟福德·B·海斯一样都来自俄亥俄州。

Garfield’s father died when he was very young. The future president was raised largely by his mother, two older sisters and a brother.
加菲尔德很小的时候，父亲就去世了。这位未来的总统主要是由他的母亲，两个姐姐和一个哥哥抚养长大的。

Among all the presidents, Garfield probably was the most poor in his early years. Growing up, he worked as a farmer, a sailor, a carpenter, a teacher and a janitor.
在所有的总统当中，加菲尔德可能是早年生活中最困苦的一位了。长大的过程中，他当过农民、水手、木匠、教师以及清洁工。

Finally, he earned a position as a student at Williams College in western Massachusetts.
最终，他成为了马萨诸塞州西部威廉姆斯学院的一名学生。

Garfield loved learning. He eventually taught at a school called the Eclectic Institute. Later, he became its president.
加菲尔德酷爱学习。他最终在一所叫做Eclectic Institute的学校教书。再后来，他成为了总统。

Garfield married one of his students at the Eclectic Institute, Lucretia Rudolph. She became a teacher, too.
在Eclectic Institute，加菲尔德和他的一位叫做卢克丽霞·鲁道夫的学生结了婚，她也成为了一名教师。

The future president and his wife went on to have seven children. Four sons and a daughter survived to adulthood.
这位未来总统和他的妻子共养育了七个孩子。四个儿子和一个女儿活到了成年。

In time, Garfield moved out of education and into law and politics. He was an anti-slavery activist who did not think the Southern states had a right to withdraw from the Union. When the Civil War came, Garfield welcomed it.
后来，加菲尔德离开了教育界进入了法律和政治领域。他是一位反奴隶制的积极分子，认为南方州没有权利脱离联邦。当内战爆发时，加菲尔德表示欢迎。

During the war, Garfield served in the military as an officer. He won awards for his bravery. While still a young man, he was appointed to the position of major general.
内战期间，加菲尔德作为一名军官在军队里服役。他获得了勇敢勋章。他还年轻的时候，就被授予了少将军衔。

His image as a war hero was so great that Garfield did not have to campaign for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected on his name alone.
战争英雄的形象使加菲尔德不需要竞选就当上了众议员，他仅仅凭他的名字就当选了。

Congress 国会

Garfield’s way of thinking changed while he was in Congress. He began as one of the most extreme Radical Republicans. He wanted to punish former Confederate officers severely.
进入国会后，加菲尔德的思维方式发生了改变。他开始变成极端激进的共和党人。他想要严厉惩罚前联盟官员。

But, in time, Garfield softened his positions. He learned to compromise with other groups in order to achieve results for his state.
但是，随着时间的推移，加菲尔德的立场慢慢软化。他学会了与其他团体组织妥协，以便为他所在的州取得成绩。

But he did not always represent the interests of workers or farmers in Ohio. Garfield supported business interests that wanted to limit the country’s money supply. He opposed labor unions and cooperative farm programs, called the Grange.
但加菲尔德并不总是代表俄亥俄州工人和农民的利益，他支持希望限制国家货币供应的商业利益。他反对工会以及合作农场项目，这个项目叫做Grange。

Garfield also became linked to a corruption case. He accepted stock shares in a company that was building a railroad across the country. In exchange, Garfield and other top officials eased government rules so businessman could earn higher profits for their work.
加菲尔德与一起贪污案也有关系，他收受了一家铁路公司的股票。作为交换，加菲尔德和其他一些高级官员放宽了政府政策，铁路公司可以从中赚取更高的利润。

Although Garfield’s political career sometimes drew criticism, he continued to rise in government.
尽管加菲尔德的政治生涯有时会招致批评，但他在政府中的地位一直在上升。

Presidency 总统任期

When Garfield became president in March 1881, he did not have what Americans call a mandate – the approval of a large part of the population.
1881年3月，加菲尔德就任总统，但他并没有得到美国人所谓的授权，即大部分美国民众的同意。

Instead, he needed to make compromises with lawmakers to help win their support.
相反，他需要向议员妥协来帮助他赢得支持。

As a result, the first weeks of his presidency were a political struggle to appoint members to his cabinet of advisors.
结果，他担任总统的头几周来任命内阁顾问就是一场政治斗争。

Garfield also clashed with a powerful senator from New York State. The senator wanted to continue the tradition of permitting senators to choose who got government jobs in their states. But President Garfield wanted to put someone who shared his own beliefs in some of the top positions in New York.
加菲尔德与一位来自纽约州的强势的参议员也有冲突。这位参议员想要继续允许参议员们选择他们自己州的行政人员的传统。但加菲尔德总统想要选择与他自己相同信仰的人来担任纽约州的一些重要职能部门。

Finally, the senator resigned in protest.
最终，这位参议员辞职以示抗议。

But the issue set the tone for Garfield’s short time in office. Elected officials battled each other for advantages and financial gain. Officials in Garfield’s party were accused of corruption and wrongdoing.
但此次事件确立了加菲尔德短暂总统生涯的基调。选举产生的官员之间为了利益和经济获益而相互斗争。加菲尔德的党内官员被指控贪污以及道德败坏。

And before Garfield could really suggest any ideas for government reform, he was shot by someone seeking a government job in exchange for his political support.
在加菲尔德真正能够提出任何政府改革的想法之前，他就被一位寻求行政职位的人给枪杀了，以换取他的政治支持。

Assassination 刺杀

On July 2, 1881 – fewer than four months after he took office – Garfield was leaving for a short trip with two of his sons. They were going to take a train to Williams, the college Garfield had attended and loved. The president was supposed to give a speech there.
1881年7月2日，也就是加菲尔德担任总统以来不到四个月的时间，他和两个儿子准备离开华盛顿出趟短途。他们打算搭乘火车去威廉姆斯学院，加菲尔德曾经在这所学校上学并深爱着它。总统应该是去那里发表一篇演讲。

But as he walked through the train station, a man with a gun stepped behind Garfield and shot the president twice.
但是，当加菲尔德走过火车站台时，一个持枪男子跑到了他的背后，朝总统开了两枪。

One bullet touched Garfield’s arm. The other went into his lower back.
一颗子弹击中了加菲尔德的胳膊，另一颗打中了他的下背。

Garfield did not die immediately. Instead, he was taken back to the White House, where doctors tried to remove the bullet.
加菲尔德并没有立即死去，而是被送回了白宫，让医生们尝试取出子弹。

One of the men who tried was Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.
这当中一人就是电话发明家亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔。

Bell tried to find the bullet by using a device like a metal detector that he had invented. But the springs on Garfield’s bed interfered.
贝尔试着用一个他自己发明的类似金属探测器的设备来寻找子弹，但加菲尔德床上的弹簧干扰了检查。

Neither Bell nor the doctors were able to remove the bullet. And, some historians say, their efforts may have made the situation worse.
贝尔和医生都没能够取出子弹。而且，一些历史学家认为，他们的努力也许使情况变得更糟糕了。

Garfield suffered for more than two more months. At one point, he seemed to be recovering. But on September 19, he finally died. He was 49 years old.
加菲尔德遭受了两个多月的痛苦，他一度好像就快恢复了。但最后，在9月19日那天，死神还是夺走了他的生命，时年49岁。

As for the gunman, he was captured shortly after the shooting. His name was Charles Guiteau.
至于持枪凶手，开枪后不久就被抓捕了。凶手的名字叫查尔斯·吉特奥。

Guiteau was a lawyer with little money, but many mental problems.
吉特奥是一位落魄的律师，有许多精神问题。

During the election of 1880, he had first supported the candidacy of former president Ulysses S. Grant. When Garfield won the Republican nomination instead, Guiteau supported him.
1880年大选期间，他一开始支持前总统尤利西斯·辛普森·格兰特。当加菲尔德赢得共和党提名时，吉特奥反而支持他了。

Guiteau did not have an official role in the election campaign, and Garfield did not know him. But over time, Guiteau came to believe that he was responsible for Garfield winning the presidency. As a result, Guiteau thought Garfield owed him a government job.
吉特奥在竞选活动当中并没有扮演正式角色，加菲尔德也不认识他。但随着时间的推移，吉特奥开始相信他为加菲尔德赢得总统职位尽责的。结果，吉特奥认为加菲尔德欠他一个行政职位。

Guiteau wrote the president several letters requesting positions as a diplomat in Europe. When Garfield did not write back, Guiteau grew angry. He believed Garfield was ruining the Republican Party and destroying the country.
吉特奥给总统写了数封信件，要求欧洲外交官的职位。加菲尔德没有回复信件，吉特奥愈发恼怒。他认为加菲尔德正在毁灭共和党以及摧毁着整个国家。

For weeks, Guiteau followed the president and plotted to kill him. When he succeeded in shooting Garfield, Guiteau believed he had performed a great service.
数周之内，吉特奥一直尾随着总统并谋划刺杀他。当吉特奥成功击中加菲尔德的时候，他相信自己做了一项伟大的事情。

At his trial, a jury decided that Guiteau was sane – in other words, he was not too mentally unbalanced to be responsible for his crime. Almost a year after he shot the president, Guiteau himself was hanged.
在庭审过程中，评审团判定吉特奥精神是健全的，也就是说，他并不会因为精神失常而免于犯罪责任。大概射杀总统的一年后，吉特奥被绞杀了。

Thus the most dramatic event in James Garfield’s presidency came to an end.
因此，加菲尔德总统生涯中的这场最戏剧性的事件也就宣告结束了。

I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Words in this story

carpenter - n. a person whose job is to make or fix wooden objects or wooden parts of buildings - 木匠

janitor - n. a person who cleans a building and makes minor repairs - 清洁工；看门人；守卫；门警

achieve - v. to get or reach (something) by working hard - 获得

drew - v. caused to come - 引起

tone - n. the general quality of a situation - 基调

advantages - n. something (such as a good position or condition) that helps to make someone or something better or more likely to succeed than others - 优势；特点；有利；[经] 利益（advantage的复数）

detector - n. a device that can tell if a substance or object is present : a device that detects the presence of something - 检测器

thus - adv. in this way or manner : like this - 因此