美国历史上第一起总统遇刺事件

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，安德鲁·杰克逊(Andrew Jackson)差点成为第一位在任期间被杀的美国总统。当时，没有特勤局，也没有人真正关注总统面临的威胁，这使得杰克逊的生还更加不可思议。如果不是因为两支哑火的枪，和杰克逊对近身格斗的爱好，历史可能会出现非常不同的结果。
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Richard Lawrence

理查德·劳伦斯

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.

想暗杀杰克逊的理查德·劳伦斯并不是辉格党的棋子，甚至不是政治人物。12岁时从英国移居美国后，他一生的大部分时间都在做房屋油漆工，从未惹过任何麻烦，直到他患上一种神秘的精神疾病。历史学家认为，劳伦斯使用的颜料中的有毒化学物质，在他三十多岁时彻底改变了他的性格，这个曾经温和保守的年轻人开始穿着华丽，挑起斗殴，命令人们称他为理查三世。
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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."

就在他试图暗杀杰克逊总统前不久，劳伦斯辞去了工作，并宣布要回英国，但随后又含糊其辞地表示，在英国旅行并不安全。在接下来的几个星期里，他变得越来越偏执和情绪不稳，一边跟踪杰克逊的动向，一边大声抱怨杰克逊阻止他获得一大笔钱。在他决定做点什么的那天，有目击者看到他在油漆店里拿着一本书笑着，突然他站起来说:“如果我不做，我就死定了。”

Drawing of attempted presidential assassin Richard Lawrence.

刺杀总统的理查德·劳伦斯的画像。
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The Attempted Assassination Of Andrew Jackson

刺杀安德鲁·杰克逊的企图

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，杰克逊在美国国会大厦参加了南卡罗来纳州众议员沃伦·戴维斯的葬礼。带着两把手枪，劳伦斯跟着总统来到国会大厦，想在仪式前开枪打死总统，但他无法占据足够近的有利位置。葬礼平静地进行着，但杰克逊离开时，劳伦斯已经做好了准备。

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.

当杰克逊经过他身边时，劳伦斯从东门廊的柱子后面跳了出来，向杰克逊的后背开了第一枪，但什么也没发生。原来是枪走火了，但劳伦斯没有时间进行这种技术性的故障排除。他用第二支手枪射击。同样的事情发生了。大约100年后，史密森学会的研究人员测试了劳伦斯的武器，没有发现任何问题。两支手枪都哑火的几率约为十二万五千分之一。人们现在认为，那天异常潮湿，可能会抑制劳伦斯手枪里的火药，这是总统能活到1月31日的唯一原因。
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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.

尽管场面虎头虎尾，杰克逊还是注意到有人想要杀他，于是他用手杖打劳伦斯的头，直到他自己的助手从他手中救下这个未遂杀手。1835年，尽管杰克逊已经67岁了，身体状况也很糟糕，但他真的不是你想惹就惹的人:他从小就成了孤儿，13岁时就成了战俘。基本上可以说，他阅历丰富，见多识广。他仍然是美国历史上最强硬的总统之一。由于最近在辉格党解散美国银行的问题上与对手发生冲突，他和他的许多幕僚认为，反对党会不择手段，甚至谋杀，以得到他们想要的东西。副总统马丁·范布伦对辉格党非常警惕，他每次拜访参议院都随身携带双枪，所以杰克逊比平常更不能容忍这种闹剧。

1833 Democratic cartoon shows Jackson destroying the "Devil's Bank."

1833年，民主党漫画展示杰克逊摧毁“魔鬼银行”。

Lawrence's Fate

劳伦斯的命运

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，杰克逊认为劳伦斯与他的辉格党敌人串通一气，因为他最近在解散美国银行的问题上与辉格党发生了争执，但在对他的审判中，很明显，劳伦斯根本就是个脱离现实的人。他穿着猎装，打着领带，继续坚持要被称为理查德三世，并解释说，他必须杀死杰克逊(他声称杰克逊杀死了他的父亲)，才能收回杰克逊一直瞒着他的大笔财富，并获得他在英国王位上的合法地位。

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.

陪审团花了五分钟就以精神错乱为由裁定劳伦斯无罪。在对他做出判决之前，劳伦斯宣称，“先生们，应该是我向你们宣布，而不是你们向我宣布，”之后，他在各大精神病院度过了余生。1855年，他被安置在华盛顿特区的政府精神病院，在那里他一直生活到1861年6月13日去世。