○  National Address Pardoning Richard M. Nixon  ○

　　Gerald R. Ford

　　Address to the Nation Pardoning Richard M. Nixon

　　delivered on September 8, 1974, Washington D.C.

　　演讲者简介：杰拉尔德·鲁道夫·福特 (Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ，1913年7月14日~2006年12月26日)美国第37位、第38任总统(1974年8月9日~1977年1月20日)。就职后，福特面对几乎不能克服的任务。面对通货膨胀，恢复经济，解决能量短缺等问题，并且努力保证世界和平。政府干预和花费作为解决美国社会和经济的问题的方法控制趋势。归根结底，他相信，这变化将为全部美国人带来好生活。1972、1975、1981年福特曾3次访问中国。

　　*Ladies and gentlemen: I have come to a decision which I felt I should tell you and all of my fellow American citizens, as soon as I was certain in my own mind and in my own conscience that it is the right thing to do. *I have learned already in this office that the difficult decisions always come to this desk. I must admit that many of them do not look at all the same as the hypothetical questions that I have answered freely and perhaps too fast on previous occasions.

　　My customary policy is to try and get all the facts and to consider the opinions of my countrymen and to take counsel with my most valued friends. But these seldom agree, and in the end, the decision is mine. To procrastinate, to agonize, and to wait for a more favorable turn of events that may never come or more compelling external pressures that may as well be wrong as right, is itself a decision of sorts and a weak and potentially dangerous course for a President to follow.

　　I have promised to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the very best that I can for America. I have asked your help and your prayers, not only when I became President but many times since. The Constitution is the supreme law of our land, and it governs our actions as citizens. Only the laws of God, which govern our consciences, are superior to it.

　　As we are a nation under God, so I am sworn to uphold our laws with the help of God. And I have sought such guidance and searched my

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