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Even Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Lee一who was directly descended from Martha Washington, the great-granddaughter, and by marriage to George Washington, she said, "Robert E. Lee is not the Confederacy. Richmond is not the Confederacy." That's how volatile the situation still was.
就連羅伯特·E.李的妻子，瑪麗·李（她是美國首位第一夫人瑪莎·華盛頓的直系曾孫女）也說李不代表南部邦聯(lián)，里士滿也不是整個(gè)南部邦聯(lián)。”當(dāng)時(shí)的形勢就是如此捉摸不定。
How much longer would the war last? Three weeks? Three months? Six months? As Lincoln knew and feared, throughout history such time spans had been enough to start, fight, and win wars, to unseat great dynasties or to complicate the reconciliation to come. And five days later, Lincoln was dead. He was killed on April 14 at 10:14 at night. And William Seward, the Union's Secretary of State, was stabbed five times.
這場戰(zhàn)爭還能再打多久？三周？三個(gè)月？六個(gè)月？林肯知道歷史上這樣一段時(shí)間足以發(fā)動、進(jìn)行并贏得一場戰(zhàn)爭，甚至推翻一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的朝代，或是使即將達(dá)成的和解難以實(shí)現(xiàn)，這也正是他所憂慮的事。五天后，林肯便去世了。他在4月14日晚10點(diǎn)14分遭暗殺。北部聯(lián)邦的國務(wù)卿威廉·蘇厄德被捅了五刀。
Only Andrew Johnson escaped unscathed. Had he been assassinated that night, there would have been a complete decapitation of the Union government.
只有安德魯·約翰遜免遭傷害。如果那晚他也遭暗殺，聯(lián)邦政府就會群龍無首。
I figured that the transition mechanism was all very simple, the vice president would become the president. In fact the picture was far murkier and far more complex in April 1865. Because, as it turned out, when I went to check this question, the founders did not intend for the vice president to become president. They only intended for him to temporarily act as president until there was an election. So on that fateful evening, Lincoln was shot, and Seward was ailing with five wounds, and Johnson had never been expected to become a president. He was widely written off as a buffoon in Washington circles.
我曾經(jīng)以為過渡機(jī)制很簡單，副總統(tǒng)自然會出任總統(tǒng)。但事實(shí)上，1865年4月的局勢極不明朗，十分復(fù)雜。因?yàn)楫?dāng)我對這個(gè)問題進(jìn)行研究時(shí)，出乎意料地發(fā)現(xiàn)，華盛頓的元老們（在立憲時(shí)）根本就沒有打算讓副總統(tǒng)擔(dān)任總統(tǒng)。他們僅僅打算在大選之前讓他臨時(shí)盡總統(tǒng)之職。因此在那個(gè)可怕的夜晚，當(dāng)林肯被槍殺，蘇厄德身中五刀時(shí)，沒有人期待約翰遜當(dāng)總統(tǒng)。華盛頓政界不少人視他為小丑。
