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美式的雄辯哪兒去了?這片自由的國土也是孕育了H·L·門肯(H. L. Mencken)和德懷特·麥克唐納(Dwight Macdonald)的地方,他們絲毫不缺輕快、諷刺的機趣。這是門肯寫南方的一句話:“歐洲,一英畝地里住的一流人物,多過波托馬克河以南所有州的。” 或如麥克唐納形容時任國務卿科德爾·赫爾(Cordell Hull):“一個心胸狹隘、猥瑣自負、土裡土氣的反動分子,從沒做過一次言之有物的演說。”
2011.08.08
《赫爾回憶錄‧序》 (部分)
赫爾Hull, Cordell (1871-1955)在小羅斯福執政期,當過12年國務卿(secretary of state ,1933-44) 。他是位國際級重要的人士,得過諾貝爾和平獎。 1948年胡適寫《赫爾回憶錄》序時, 稱「……羅斯福赫爾的政府還能夠做到他們所曾做的……」
這裏收集的《赫爾回憶錄》……專記他十二年的國務卿生活……
在美國的政治制度裏,國務卿的重要性僅次於大總統,他是總統制下的首席閣員,在最近幾十年裏他是世界最大強國的外交首領。當1933年2月21日羅斯福總統發表赫爾先生為國務卿的時候,全國報紙的社論差不多一致贊揚總統的知人善任。…….這樣一致的輿論擁護,是赫爾先生幾十年的政治成積得來的社會信任。
這位田納西來的參議員那時六十一歲半,已做過二十二年的眾議員,又做過兩年的參議員了。他的國會生活可分做前後兩的時期:前一期是從1907到1921,是民主黨從在野到當政的時候,是從塔虎脫到威爾遜的時代。後一期從1923到1933,是民主黨又從在野黨轉到逐漸恢復政權的時代。
自從林肯總統就職(1861),直到威爾遜總統就職(1913) ,整整五十二年之中,民主黨只有克里夫蘭當選做總統(1885-89,又1893-97) ,先後兩次執政八年。其餘四十四年,全是共和黨當國的時期。……到了1910年的選舉,民主黨開始抬頭……總統還是共和檔的塔虎脫。
在新國會召集之前幾個月,民主黨的眾議員之中,有四個議員發起了一個不動聲色的議會革新運動。這四個人是吉青 (Kitchin, N.C.)海 (John Hay, Va.)--hc: 不是下文的John M. Hay休斯 (William Hughes, N.J.)赫爾 (Hull, Tenn.)
這四個人決心要改革幾十年來眾議院裏的議長專制的制度,他們秘密集會,擬定了《眾議院規則》的修正案,商定了各分股委員會主席的人選,並決定了新國會裏民主黨的立法政策。
…….這四個人日夜辛苦努力的結果全被通過了,都成民主黨的全體主張。赫爾先生從這個經驗裏得著一個最有益的教訓:在議會制度裏,幾個人的決心與苦幹往往可以得著很多的收穫。個時候,赫爾先生剛滿了三十九歲。
兩年之後 (1912),共和黨內部分裂,老羅斯福( Theodore Roosevelt) 創立了進步黨。三黨競選的結果,一為大教授叫做威爾遜的,被選出做了大總統。國會的兩院都是民主黨佔多數。民主黨革新政治的機會到了。
在威爾遜的領導之下,民主黨做到了很多的改革。其中最重要的一大組是賦稅法的革新,包括關稅的修正,所得稅的實行,遺產稅的建立。在這三方面,赫爾先生都有很爸貢獻。
赫爾先生….所以美國人至今稱他做「中央所得稅法之父」。……. 威爾遜總統的八年,是赫爾先生的立法事業最得意的時期。……
民主黨在1920年遭到空前的慘敗….. 赫爾先生…也丟了眾議院的位置。民主黨的全國總部窮到不能還欠債。民主黨又得坐十二年的冷板凳了。……只有赫爾先生是大家沒異議的。……選舉他出來做主席,主持整頓全國黨務的工作。赫爾先生做了三年多……親自主持一個民主黨宣傳機構,設在華盛頓,…小街上租兩間小房子…..一個女書記….. 赫爾每天到這^李辦公…….1924年的大選快到了,……。赫爾先生才把全國委員會主席的事交給他的繼任者。他交代時曾說:「……居然還有幾千元的盈餘。這個組織現在是很進步的一個機構,從今以後敗每個主要方面逋能夠工作了。」
…… 這是赫爾先生做國務卿以前的政治事業的小史。….. 赫爾是威爾遜的「新自由」的革新運動的一名健將。當威爾遜以後的十二年民主黨倒霉的時代,赫爾是坐鎮大本營的元老,整頓黨務的功臣。羅斯福總統曾做過威爾遜政府的海軍次長,他很認識那位在國會裏替人民說話,為直接稅奮鬥。主張國際經濟和平,反對關稅壁壘的南方自由主義赫爾先生 (參看回憶錄第六、八章)。赫爾先生在國會兩院有了二十年的經驗,最受兩院議員的愛敬。羅斯福總統正需要一位能得國會信任的國務卿,所以他毫不遲豫的請求赫爾先生做他的首席閣員。
羅斯福總統是美國史上任職最久的總統,赫爾先生是美國史上任職最久的國務卿。1933年以下12年的大事,就是這部回憶錄的內容,不用我多說了。…….
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約翰·米爾頓·海伊(John Milton Hay,1838年10月8日 - 1905年7月1日),又譯海約翰,美國印地安那州華盛頓郡人,作家、記者、外交家、政治家,曾任林肯總統私人秘書,後於威廉·麥金萊和老羅斯福等總統時期任國務卿。
在對華事務方面,反對列強劃分勢力範圍,主張「門戶開放政策」,要求「中國開戶開放,各國利益均沾」,從而避免了瓜分中國。清光緒三十年至三十一年(1904至1905年清光緒三十年至三十一年),認為庚子賠款賠款過多,希望減免。大清駐美公使梁誠從中斡旋,促成減免。美國總統羅斯福決定返還賠款基數定為一千餘萬美元,逐年退還。賠款用於人才培養和赴美留學。[1][2]
John Hay
A statesman for all seasons
A valuable reassessment of an underestimated politician and diplomat
“IT HAS been a splendid little war.” John Hay meant the opposite: thank goodness for the brevity of the Spanish-American War of 1898. But the damage was done. As John Taliaferro, a former editor at Newsweek, shows in “All the Great Prizes”, but for that misinterpreted remark (and the comments made about him by Theodore Roosevelt), Hay would rank among the most influential American statesmen of the last century.
Hay was anything but a warmonger. He had had more than his fill of blood when, after the war against Spain, he became first William McKinley’s and then Roosevelt’s secretary of state. As his acute biographer recalls, Hay was only five when a hateful mob from his home town of Carthage, Illinois, broke into a jail to murder two Mormon leaders. He was scarcely any older when an escaping slave bled heavily in the basement of his family’s home. He was barely out of his teens when more Americans died at Antietam than in any battle before or since. And he was just 26 when, as the president’s secretary, he sat beside the bed of the dying Abraham Lincoln.
As a thinker, talker and writer, Hay’s brilliance gained him Lincoln’s confidence and earned him a post at the president’s elbow. Hay and his best friend, Henry Adams, were among the finest writers of their day and Mr Taliaferro is able to draw on their letters to each other—letters packed with inside information and malicious gossip. They must have made this biography a joy to write.
Hay’s productivity was impressive. After the death of Lincoln, he edited a New York newspaper, occupied diplomatic posts in Paris, Madrid, Vienna and London, cultivated friendships with Rudyard Kipling, Henry James and Mark Twain and still found the time to co-author a ten-volume biography of Lincoln. He was thus highly qualified to become America’s secretary of state in 1898. After providing a backbone for McKinley, a president famously described as “a kindly soul in a spineless body”, Hay became the perfect foil for Roosevelt, McKinley’s successor.
Roosevelt and Hay worked well together. The secretary of state spoke softly while the president carried his big stick. Between them they created two lasting achievements: the Anglo-American special relationship and the preservation of China as a unified country.
Hay died in office in 1905 but, aided by Roosevelt’s bluster, he had already ensured that relations between Britain and America were in better shape than at any time since the American Revolution. Simultaneously Hay struggled to keep China intact and, in Mr Taliaferro’s book, this was much the harder task. In its victory over Spain the United States had gained several Pacific islands and a formidable presence in East Asia, which provided America with the influence it needed to persuade Russia, Japan and the European powers “to preserve Chinese territorial and administrative integrity”. Their initiative prevented the partition of China and also, of course, served America’s commercial interests.
He deserved a large share of the applause. Roosevelt gave it to him in public, but in a notorious letter to a friend in 1909 he claimed Hay’s “moral timidity” caused him “to shrink from all that was rough in life, and therefore from practical affairs”. Here the president lacked guts. As Mr Taliaferro tartly notes, “Roosevelt never said any such thing while Hay was alive”.
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