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勒尼德ˇ汉德
(LEARNED HAND)
自由的精神
The
Spirit of Liberty
自由的精神即是对其是否正确不很有把握的精神。
虽然勒尼德ˇ汉德(1872ˇ1961)从未在最高法院任职ˇ却被认为是美国历史上最伟大的法官之一。他生于纽约阿尔伯尼ˇ从哈佛大学和哈佛法学院毕业。
勒尼德ˇ汉德先是于1909年被任命为联邦法官ˇ接着于1924年进入美国上诉法院。自1939至1951年ˇ他作为该法院的首席法官ˇ以他的才学、智慧和对民主原则的深刻信念成为全国最有影ˇ的法官之一。
1944年5月21日ˇ汉德法官应邀在纽约市中央公园对一大型集会演讲以纪念“我是一个美国人日”。他这篇发表在大战关键时期的讲话被广泛印发和收入选集。
我们聚集在这里肯定一种信念ˇ一种对共同目的、共同信仰和共同的ˇ身精神的信念。我们中有些人已选定美国作爲自己的国家ˇ其它人则是做出这种选择的人的后代。爲此原因ˇ我们有权把自己看成是一个经过精选的群体ˇ它的成员勇于同过去决裂ˇ勇于面对在一个陌生国度遇到的危ˇ和孤寂。是什麽目标激励我们或我们的前人做出这一选择的呢?
我们追求自由ˇ不受压迫的自由ˇ免遭贫困的自由ˇ独立自主的自由。我们当时追求这一目标ˇˇ在我们ˇ信自己通过奋斗达到了这一目标。当我们说我们首先追求自由的时候ˇ意味着什麽呢?
我经常怀疑ˇ我们是否对ˇ法、法律和法庭寄予过多的希望。这些是虚幻的希望ˇ真的ˇ这些是虚幻的希望。自由存在于人们的心中ˇ一旦它在人们心中死去ˇ没有任何ˇ法、法律或法院能拯救它ˇ甚至没有任何ˇ法、法律或法庭能予给它多大帮助。当自由存在人们心中时ˇ无须ˇ法、法律或法庭去拯救它。那麽这一必须存活于人们心中的自由究竟是什麽呢?
它不是冷酷无情ˇ不受约束的意志ˇ不是随心所欲的自由。那是对自由的否定ˇ直接导致自由的毁灭。倘若在一个社会中人们不承认对他们的自由应有所控制ˇ那麽它很快会变成一个只让一小撮凶狠残暴的人拥有自由的社会。对这一点我们已有痛苦的教训。
什麽是自由的精神?
我无法给它下定义ˇ只能告诉你们我自己的信念。自由的精神即是对其是否正确不很有把握的精神ˇ自由的精神即是尽力去理解别人的见解的精神ˇ自由的精神即是将别人的利益与自己的利益不带偏见一并考虑的精神ˇ自由的精神铭记ˇ即使一只麻雀落地也该引起注意ˇ自由的精神也就是基督的精神ˇ他在将近二千年之前教给人类从未学过ˇ从此难忘的一课ˇ有可能出ˇ一个王国ˇ在那里人们对最伟大者和最渺小者不分贵贱ˇ一视同仁。ˇ在ˇ以这种精神ˇ以这种从未存在、或许永不会有的美国ˇˇ惟美国人的良知和勇气才能创造它ˇˇ所具有的精神ˇ以某种形式深藏在我们大家心中的那个美国的精神ˇ以我国的年轻人此刻正爲之战斗ˇ身的那个美国的精神ˇ我请求你们起立ˇ与我一起宣誓效忠于对我们可爱的国家光辉前程的信仰。
W e have
gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a common purpose, a common
conviction, a common devotion. Some of us have chosen America as the land of our
adoption; the rest have come from those who did the same. For this reason we
have some right to consider our-selves a picked group, a group of those who had
the courage to break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a
strange land. What was the object that nerved us, or those who went before us,
to this choice? We sought liberty; freedom from oppression, freedom from want,
freedom to be ourselves. This we then sought; this we now believe that we are by
way of winning. What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I
often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon
laws and upon courts. "These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes.
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no
constitution, no lawˇ,
no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help
it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.
And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is
not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That
is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in
which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where
freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our
sorrow.
What this is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you
my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it
is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the
minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs
their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers
that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the
spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it
has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom
where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.
And now in that spirit, that spirit of an America which has never been, and
which may never be; nay, which never will be except as the conscience and
courage of Americans create it; yet in the spirit of that America which lies
hidden in some form in the aspirations of us all; in the spirit of that America
for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying; in that spirit of
liberty and of America I ask you to rise and with me pledge our faith in the
glorious destiny of our beloved country.
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