【精读精练】一篇关于女权的伟大演说•论女性的选举权

导读
上期节目中
美国靠前夫人米歇尔
借为希拉里拉票演说之际
竭力抨击特朗普
为美国年轻女性的权益奔走呼号

实际上
女性权利与黑人权利一样
一直是美国文学中的重要主题
也是新SAT阅读考试的一个重点
近日节目中的这篇文章就选自
美国民权运动苏珊·安东尼
关于争取女权的演说
在1872年的总统大选中
苏珊·安东尼冒美国之大不韪
参与了投票选举
结果被罚100美元
安东尼因此
发表了一场具有epoch-making的演说
成为美国争取妇女选举权运动中的一个重大事件

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. 

词汇精选Ordain  [ɔ:rˈdeɪn] vt.授权
downright ['daʊnraɪt] adj. 显明的
disfranchisement  [,dɪs'fræntʃaɪzmənt] n. 剥夺公民权
odious  ['odɪəs] adj. 可憎的；讨厌的
oligarchy  ['ɑlə'gɑrki] n. 寡头政治
dissension [dɪ'sɛnʃən] n. 争吵
hardihood  ['hɑrdɪ,hʊd] n. 厚颜