Stephen Decatur

Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr. (5 January 1779 – 22 March 1820) was an American naval officer, notable for his heroism in actions at Tripoli, Libya in the Barbary Wars and in the War of 1812.

Portrait of Decatur

"Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong"

Quotes

• Our country – In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, and always successful, right or wrong.
  • Toast at a dinner in Norfolk, Virginia (April 1816) reported in Niles' Weekly Register (Baltimore, Maryland) 20 April 1816; as cited in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (2010), Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, p. 70
  • Variant: Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.
    • [emphasis added] This widely quoted version is attributed in Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Life of Stephen Decatur: A Commodore in the Navy of the United States (1846), C. C. Little and J. Brown, p. 443.
  • This statement produced the famous slogan "My country, right or wrong!" which itself produced famous responses by:
    • Carl Schurz "...if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right."
      • Schurz, Carl, remarks in the Senate, February 29, 1872, The Congressional Globe, vol. 45, p. 1287. See Wikisource for the complete speech.
    • G. K. Chesterton "'My country, right or wrong' is a thing that no patriot would think of saying, except in a desperate case. It is like saying, 'My mother, drunk or sober'." -- A Defence of Patriotism