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My country, right or wrong...
Re: My country, right or wrong...
#4
Quote:
...the jingoistic types who bandy this phrase back and forth never remember the original context....
Alas, according to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, the jingoistic types are quoting the original coinage: the naval hero Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) said it as a toast in April 1816. "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our courntry, right or wrong."
John Quincy Adams, a few months later, wrote to his father on his misgivings about Decatur's toast, and added, "I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum. My toast would be, may our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right."
Schurz's version is better, though, I agree.
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
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Messages In This Thread
My country, right or wrong... - by Luca Nicolai - 04-11-2006, 08:10 PM
Re: My country, right or wrong... - by M Fnord - 04-12-2006, 01:10 AM
Re: My country, right or wrong... - by DHBirr - 04-12-2006, 05:52 AM
Re: My country, right or wrong... - by Luca Nicolai - 04-13-2006, 12:16 AM

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