美國歷史上第一起總統(tǒng)遇刺事件

In 1835, Andrew Jackson almost became the first American president to be killed in office. At the time, there was no Secret Service and no one really keeping tabs on threats to the president, which makes Jackson's survival all the more miraculous. If it weren't for two misfiring guns and Jackson's predilection for hand-to-hand combat, history could have turned out very differently.
 
1835年，安德魯·杰克遜(Andrew Jackson)差點成為第一位在任期間被殺的美國總統(tǒng)。當時，沒有特勤局，也沒有人真正關注總統(tǒng)面臨的威脅，這使得杰克遜的生還更加不可思議。如果不是因為兩支啞火的槍，和杰克遜對近身格斗的愛好，歷史可能會出現(xiàn)非常不同的結果。
 
Richard Lawrence
 
理查德·勞倫斯
 
Jackson's would-be assassin, Richard Lawrence, wasn't a Whig pawn or even all that political. After moving to the States from England when he was 12 years old, he worked as a house painter for most of his life and never caused any trouble until he succumbed to a mysterious mental illness. Historians believe toxic chemicals in the paint Lawrence used radically altered his personality in his thirties, when the once mild-mannered and conservatively presented young man began dressing flamboyantly, picking fights, and ordering people to refer to him as Richard III.
 
想暗殺杰克遜的理查德·勞倫斯并不是輝格黨的棋子，甚至不是政治人物。12歲時從英國移居美國后，他一生的大部分時間都在做房屋油漆工，從未惹過任何麻煩，直到他患上一種神秘的精神疾病。歷史學家認為，勞倫斯使用的顏料中的有毒化學物質，在他三十多歲時徹底改變了他的性格，這個曾經溫和保守的年輕人開始穿著華麗，挑起斗毆，命令人們稱他為理查三世。
 
Not long before he attempted to assassinate President Jackson, Lawrence quit his job and announced that he was moving back to England but then declared evasively that it wasn't safe to travel. Over the next few weeks, he grew increasingly paranoid and unstable, following Jackson's movements while muttering aloud that Jackson was keeping him from acquiring a large sum of money. On the day that he decided to do something about it, witnesses saw him in his paint shop, holding a book and laughing, when he suddenly stood and declared "I'll be damned if I don't do it."
 
就在他試圖暗殺杰克遜總統(tǒng)前不久，勞倫斯辭去了工作，并宣布要回英國，但隨后又含糊其辭地表示，在英國旅行并不安全。在接下來的幾個星期里，他變得越來越偏執(zhí)和情緒不穩(wěn)，一邊跟蹤杰克遜的動向，一邊大聲抱怨杰克遜阻止他獲得一大筆錢。在他決定做點什么的那天，有目擊者看到他在油漆店里拿著一本書笑著，突然他站起來說:“如果我不做，我就死定了。”
 

 
Drawing of attempted presidential assassin Richard Lawrence.
 
刺殺總統(tǒng)的理查德·勞倫斯的畫像。
 
The Attempted Assassination Of Andrew Jackson
 
刺殺安德魯·杰克遜的企圖
 
On January 30, 1835, Jackson was at the U.S. Capitol for the funeral of South Carolina Representative Warren R. Davis. Armed with two pistols, Lawrence followed the President to the Capitol Building with the intention of shooting him before the service, but he couldn't get to a close enough vantage point. The funeral went on undisturbed, but by the time Jackson left, Lawrence was ready.
 
1835年1月30日，杰克遜在美國國會大廈參加了南卡羅來納州眾議員沃倫·戴維斯的葬禮。帶著兩把手槍，勞倫斯跟著總統(tǒng)來到國會大廈，想在儀式前開槍打死總統(tǒng)，但他無法占據(jù)足夠近的有利位置。葬禮平靜地進行著，但杰克遜離開時，勞倫斯已經做好了準備。
 
As Jackson passed him, Lawrence leaped from behind a pillar on the East Portico and fired his first pistol at Jackson's back, but nothing happened. It turns out the gun had misfired, but Lawrence didn't have time for such technical troubleshooting. He fired with his second pistol ... and the exact same thing happened. About 100 years later, researchers at the Smithsonian Institute tested Lawrence's weapons and found nothing wrong with them. The odds of both pistols misfiring was about 1 in 125,000. It's believed now that the unusually wet and humid day, which may have dampened the gunpowder in Lawrence's pistols, is the only reason the President lived to see January 31.
 
當杰克遜經過他身邊時，勞倫斯從東門廊的柱子后面跳了出來，向杰克遜的后背開了第一槍，但什么也沒發(fā)生。原來是槍走火了，但勞倫斯沒有時間進行這種技術性的故障排除。他用第二支手槍射擊。同樣的事情發(fā)生了。大約100年后，史密森學會的研究人員測試了勞倫斯的武器，沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)任何問題。兩支手槍都啞火的幾率約為十二萬五千分之一。人們現(xiàn)在認為，那天異常潮濕，可能會抑制勞倫斯手槍里的火藥，這是總統(tǒng)能活到1月31日的唯一原因。
 
Despite the anticlimactic action, Jackson couldn't help but notice that someone was trying to kill him and wasn't terribly thrilled about it, so he beat Lawrence over the head with his cane until the would-be assassin was rescued from the President by his own aides. In 1835, even at the age of 67 and in horrible health, Jackson was really not the guy you wanted to mess with: After being orphaned as a child, he was a prisoner of war at only 13 years old. Basically, he'd seen some stuff. He remains one of the toughest presidents who's ever held the office. Having recently butted heads with his opponents in the Whig Party over his dismantling of the Bank of the United States, he and much of his staff believed that the opposition party would stop at nothing, even murder, to get what they wanted—Vice President Martin Van Buren was so wary of the Whigs that he carried twin pistols with him whenever he visited the Senate—so Jackson was in even less mood than usual to put up with such nonsense.
 
盡管場面虎頭虎尾，杰克遜還是注意到有人想要殺他，于是他用手杖打勞倫斯的頭，直到他自己的助手從他手中救下這個未遂殺手。1835年，盡管杰克遜已經67歲了，身體狀況也很糟糕，但他真的不是你想惹就惹的人:他從小就成了孤兒，13歲時就成了戰(zhàn)俘?；旧峡梢哉f，他閱歷豐富，見多識廣。他仍然是美國歷史上最強硬的總統(tǒng)之一。由于最近在輝格黨解散美國銀行的問題上與對手發(fā)生沖突，他和他的許多幕僚認為，反對黨會不擇手段，甚至謀殺，以得到他們想要的東西。副總統(tǒng)馬丁·范布倫對輝格黨非常警惕，他每次拜訪參議院都隨身攜帶雙槍，所以杰克遜比平常更不能容忍這種鬧劇。
 
 
 
1833 Democratic cartoon shows Jackson destroying the "Devil's Bank."
 
1833年，民主黨漫畫展示杰克遜摧毀“魔鬼銀行”。
 
Lawrence's Fate
 
勞倫斯的命運
 
Initially, Jackson believed Lawrence was in cahoots with his enemies in the Whig Party, with whom he had recently butted heads over his dismantling of the Bank of the United States (Vice President Martin Van Buren was so wary of the Whigs that he carried twin pistols with him whenever he visited the Senate), but it was clear at his trial that Lawrence was simply not in touch with reality. He wore a shooting jacket and cravat, continued to insist upon being called Richard III, and explained that he had to kill Jackson, who he claimed killed his father, to recover the considerable fortune Jackson was keeping from him and take his rightful place on the British throne.
 
起初，杰克遜認為勞倫斯與他的輝格黨敵人串通一氣，因為他最近在解散美國銀行的問題上與輝格黨發(fā)生了爭執(zhí)，但在對他的審判中，很明顯，勞倫斯根本就是個脫離現(xiàn)實的人。他穿著獵裝，打著領帶，繼續(xù)堅持要被稱為理查德三世，并解釋說，他必須殺死杰克遜(他聲稱杰克遜殺死了他的父親)，才能收回杰克遜一直瞞著他的大筆財富，并獲得他在英國王位上的合法地位。
 
It took the jury about five minutes to find Lawrence not guilty by reason of insanity. Prior to his judgement, Lawrence proclaimed "It is for me, gentlemen, to pass upon you, and not you upon me," and afterward, he spent the rest of his life in various mental institutions. In 1855, he was placed in the Government Hospital for the Insane in Washington, D.C., where he lived until his death on June 13, 1861.
 
陪審團花了五分鐘就以精神錯亂為由裁定勞倫斯無罪。在對他做出判決之前，勞倫斯宣稱，“先生們，應該是我向你們宣布，而不是你們向我宣布，”之后，他在各大精神病院度過了余生。1855年，他被安置在華盛頓特區(qū)的政府精神病院，在那里他一直生活到1861年6月13日去世。