individual liberty

American  

noun

1. the liberty of an individual to exercise freely those rights generally accepted as being outside of governmental control.

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Example Sentences

In a sprawling nation founded on the precept of individual liberty and populated primarily by immigrants from around the world, there was hardly one American experience.

From The Wall Street Journal

A quintessentially American document that became foundational for the ideals of the emerging republic, it denounced authoritarianism in all its forms, called for radically representative government, embraced an almost libertarian sense of individual liberty and pointed toward political equality for all.

From Salon

After living under the tyranny of King George III, whose hated armed troops ate their food and slept in quarters the colonists were forced to provide under the Quartering Act of 1865, the drafters of the Constitution held a widespread fear of a national standing army, which they believed posed a threat to individual liberty and the sovereignty of the separate states.

From Salon

There’s a gap between America’s self-image as a country founded on the idea of individual liberty and the horrific reality of slavery.

From Salon

“It’s the one thing that can bring me back to earth, believing in individual liberty.”

From Los Angeles Times