I'm sure this phrase didn't see much use back then. But here are the words out of "The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine" in 1894:

Instead of lamenting over the result of these tests, that the rifle adopted  for the use of our Army is of foreign design, it would seem to be far better that we should take pride in the fact that, after a most impartial, exhaustive, and thorough test of the products of the inventive genius of the United States and most of the civilized countries of Europe, the United States Army is to be equipped with an infantry rifle that is without equal in the world.

Yeah, right on baby.

Of course there were some that couldn't get over it. One such individual was Lt. Col. Andrew Russell. I posted about him before. He was with the Ordnance Department, but not at the Springfield Armory. He was the one, along with Livermore, who had a suit against the U.S. Government due to the Krag-Jorgensen supposedly infringing upon some of their patents. The suit actually made it to the Supreme Court. It was dropped due to an indemnification clause that Krag-Jorgensen had to keep the U.S. Government safe from lawsuits on patent infringements. The suit was for $100,000. Even without the monetary issue, he still sought recognition of his designs that he thought were being used in the Krag rifle and even in the Mauser design. (Claimed he designed the box magazine and the clip concept.) So even 11 years after the above article was printed he was still getting some press as shown in the Army and Navy Journal from December 2, 1905.
I see this as part of the story about the Krag, albeit from behind the scenes.

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