"My country, right or wrong"

Often quoted out of context, here is what Missouri's U.S. Senator Carl Schurz really said:

In 1872:

“The senator from Wisconsin cannot frightenme by exclaiming, ‘My country, right or wrong.’ In one sense I say so, too. My country – and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” (Source: The Congressional Globe, vol. 45, p. 1287)

Chuck Baldwin tells us that Sen. Schurz then later expanded on this short statement in a speech delivered at the Anti-Imperialistic Conference in Chicago, Illinois, on October 17, 1899. He said,

“I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves . . . too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: ‘Our country, right or wrong!’ They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of TRUE patriotism: ‘Our country–when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.’” (Source: Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, vol. 6, 1913, p. 119) (Emphasis in
original.)

Virtual buckeye to Chuck Baldwin in DumpDC.