【Dwight D. Eisenhower】 【Farewell Address原声原稿】 delivered 17 January 1961
Good evening, my fellow Americans. Three days from now, after a half-century of service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in a traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.
Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.
Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on questions of great importance, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of our great nation. My own relations with Congress began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point. I then had the pleasure of building more intimate relationship with Congress during the war and immediate post-war period. Finally, we have progressed to the mutually interdependent relationship we’ve had during these past eight years.
1.lay down the responsibilities
一般用法
①放下（武器）If someone lays down their weapons, they stop fighting a battle or war and make peace.
The police ordered the criminals to lay down their weapons.
②（通常指用完后）放下， 搁下 If you lay something down, you put it down, usually because you have finished using it.
At noon, we laid down the rakes and rested for a while.
The strikers laid down their tools.
2.vest v. [F]
授予，赋予，给予（权利或责任）If something is vested in you, or if you are vested with it, it is given to you as a right or responsibility.
The mass media have been vested with significant power as social and political agents in modern developed societies...
Congress is vested with the power to declare war. = The power to declare war is vested in Congress.
After five years, you'll be fully vested in the company pension plan. [=you will have earned the right to get a full pension when you retire]
3.leave-taking
an act of going away and saying goodbye
He announced his leave-taking [=departure] this morning.
The movie ended with an emotional leave-taking. [=farewell]
Leave-taking is always difficult for her.
4.countryman
同胞;同国人;同乡 Your countrymen are people from your own country.
He lost last year's final to fellow countryman Michael Stich.
5.be blessed with
to have sth good such as ability, great happiness, etc
She's blessed with excellent health.
We're blessed with five lovely grandchildren.
Woods is blessed with great natural ability as a player.
6.Senate [ˈsenət]
(美国、澳大利亚等国议会的)参议院 The Senate is the smaller and more important of the two parts of the parliament in some countries, for example the United States and Australia.
...a Senate committee.
The Senate is expected to pass the bill shortly.
7.Congress
(由众议院和参议院组成的)美国国会 Congress is the elected group of politicians that is responsible for making the law in the United States. It consists of two parts: the House of Representatives and the Senate.
※The U.S. Congress is called Capitol Hill because that is the name of the area in Washington, D.C., where the Capitol building is located.
8.West Point
(全称West Point Academy)
the US Military Academy, founded in 1802, located on the site of a former strategic fort on the west bank of the Hudson River in New York State
西点（即美国陆军军官学校，成立于1802年，位于纽约州哈得逊河西岸的前战略要塞旧址）
9.build ... relationship with
10.progress to N
He started with sketching and then progressed to painting.
11.bestow [F]
给予；赠与；授予；赐予To bestow something on someone means to give or present it to them.
The Queen has bestowed a knighthood on him.
12.arduous
困难的；艰巨的；费力的 Something that is arduous is difficult and tiring, and involves a lot of effort.
He went through a long and arduous training program.
arduous efforts
years of arduous study
an arduous chore/duty/job/task
an arduous journey across miles of desert
13.Godspeed [F]
（尤用作对即将进行长途艰险旅行的人的祝愿语）幸运，成功,(一路)平安The term Godspeed is sometimes used in order to wish someone success and safety, especially if they are about to go on a long and dangerous journey.
We wish you Godspeed.
I know you will join me in wishing them Godspeed.
— sometimes used as an interjection
Goodbye and Godspeed to you.