Who said this originally?

Hello!

I hope some of the American history buffs can answer this question:

Who said originally and when the line of actor Maximillian Shell in the Stanley Kramer film, _Nuremberg Process_:

^ÓIT IS MY COUNTRY! NO MATTER IF IS SHE RIGHT OR WRONG!^Ô

Thanks for your help with this,

Lesia Chernihivska

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

Captain Stephen Decatur, USN (sometime before 1820).

Patrick

This is a famous declaration in American patriotic history, first given by Stephen Decatur as a toast in 1816 (according to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations 'Our country ! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right: but our country, right or wrong.'

I don't remember the circumstances, but it was Stephen Decatur who gets credit for the line some 100+ years ago. It used to be on the masthead of the New York Daily News on its editorial page and, as I recall, it read:

My country! May she alway be in the right! But my country...right or wrong!'

I think you can probably dig up the details by looking up Decatur on Google or some other search engine.

George Z.

A young native of Maryland USA and US Naval Person named Stephen Decatur. Since Off-Topic, details by e-mail.

Lesia,

Captain Stephen Decatur, a U.S. naval officer in command of the frigate 'United States' in the early 1800s once said : 'Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right