| Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. | | | |
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| | | NUMBER: | 346 |
| AUTHOR: | Stephen Decatur (1779–1820) |
| QUOTATION: | Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | STEPHEN DECATUR, toast at a dinner in Norfolk, Virginia, April 1816.—Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Life of Stephen Decatur, p. 295 (1848).
Niles’ Weekly Register, published in Baltimore, Maryland, gave a slightly different version in its April 20, 1816, issue (p. 136). A number of the toasts at the dinner for Decatur were included, probably reprinted from a Virginia newspaper, and Decatur’s appeared as: “Our country—In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, and always successful, right or wrong.” |
| SUBJECTS: | Country |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia | | |
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