Boswell tells us that Samuel Johnson made this famous pronouncement that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel on the evening of April 7, 1775. He doesn't provide any context for how the remark arose, so we don't really know for sure what was on Johnson's mind at the time.

However, Boswell assures us that Johnson was not indicting patriotism in general, only false patriotism.

For more of Samuel Johnson's thoughts on patriotism in general, go to the patriotism page.

For a discussion on a possible false patriot who Johnson might have been thinking of, see this discussion.