【精讀精練】一篇關于女權的偉大演說?論女性的選舉權

導讀
上期節(jié)目中
美國靠前夫人米歇爾
借為希拉里拉票演說之際
竭力抨擊特朗普
為美國年輕女性的權益奔走呼號

實際上
女性權利與黑人權利一樣
一直是美國文學中的重要主題
也是新SAT閱讀考試的一個重點
近日節(jié)目中的這篇文章就選自
美國民權運動蘇珊·安東尼
關于爭取女權的演說
在1872年的總統(tǒng)大選中
蘇珊·安東尼冒美國之大不韙
參與了投票選舉
結果被罰100美元
安東尼因此
發(fā)表了一場具有epoch-making的演說
成為美國爭取婦女選舉權運動中的一個重大事件

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:
 
"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
 
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.
 
For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity.
 
To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into every home of the nation.
 
Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.
 
The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.

The author includes the passage from the Constitution primarily to 
A) remind the reader of the rights guaranteed to all citizens without stipulation.
B) detail the delineation between “people” and “citizens.”
C) underscore the importance of the right to domestic tranquility.
D) provide evidence that the document, framed by males, guarantees right to only half of United States citizens. 

詞匯精選Ordain  [?:r?de?n] vt.授權
downright ['da?nra?t] adj. 顯明的
disfranchisement  [,d?s'frænt?a?zm?nt] n. 剝奪公民權
odious  ['od??s] adj. 可憎的；討厭的
oligarchy  ['ɑl?'gɑrki] n. 寡頭政治
dissension [d?'s?n??n] n. 爭吵
hardihood  ['hɑrd?,h?d] n. 厚顏