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Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong.
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Stephen Decatur, April 1816
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I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum ["Let justice be done though heaven should fall" - anonymous, circa 43 B.C.]. My toast would be, may our country always be successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.
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John Quincy Adams, August 1, 1816