squatter sovereignty
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of squatter sovereignty
An Americanism dating back to 1850–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Individualistic and self-reliant of necessity, the pioneers of this farmers' frontier rationally developed their solution to the problem of survival in the wilderness, a democratic squatter sovereignty.
From The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784 A Study of Frontier Ethnography by Wolf, George D.
The cheapest he had heard of was that of Harrison Gray Otis, on the west slope of Beacon Hill, he having obtained it by squatter sovereignty.
From The New England Magazine, Volume 1, No. 5, Bay State Monthly, Volume 4, No. 5, May, 1886 by Various
Douglas, Stephen A., on the doctrine of squatter sovereignty, 38; nominated for the Presidency in 1860, 50; unwilling to withdraw, 52; his resolution in the Senate recommending evacuation of the forts, 281; his remarks, 281.
From The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government by Davis, Jefferson
Slavery began to be discussed again, when Stephen A. Douglas, in Congress, advocated squatter sovereignty, or the right for each Territory to decide whether it would be a free or a slave State.
From Comic History of the United States by Opper, F.
His plan of squatter sovereignty had not got the Southerners Kansas, or any other slave State, to balance California and Minnesota and Oregon.
From Stephen Arnold Douglas by Brown, William Garrott
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
