Friday, February 04, 2005
Teddy K on Decatur
Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy said, yesterday (and it’s posted on his website), “Stephen Decatur famously said, ‘My country, right our wrong.’ But others through the years have said it better - ‘our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right. When wrong, to be set right.’”
For the record, Decatur said, in a toast to the nation, “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country right or wrong.”
If there is a more noble utterance than that, I’ve yet to hear it.
I also find it somehow absurd that Decatur - one of my boyhood heroes, the best-known combat commander of the Barbary wars, and one-time captain of the USS INTREPID - could have his words improved upon by the captain of the USS OLDSMOBILE.
For the record, Decatur said, in a toast to the nation, “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country right or wrong.”
If there is a more noble utterance than that, I’ve yet to hear it.
I also find it somehow absurd that Decatur - one of my boyhood heroes, the best-known combat commander of the Barbary wars, and one-time captain of the USS INTREPID - could have his words improved upon by the captain of the USS OLDSMOBILE.
# posted by W. Thomas Smith, Jr. @ 10:14 AM 
