popular sovereignty

[ pop-yuh-ler sov-rin-tee, suhv-rin-tee ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

the doctrine that sovereign power is vested in the people and that those chosen to govern, as trustees of such power, must exercise it in conformity with the general will.
American History. (before the Civil War) a doctrine, held chiefly by the opponents of the abolitionists, that the people living in a territory should be free of federal interference in determining domestic policy, especially with respect to slavery.

popular sovereignty

(in the pre-Civil War US) the doctrine that the inhabitants of a territory should be free from federal interference in determining their own domestic policy, esp in deciding whether or not to allow slavery

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Many had radically different ideas of what it was that popular sovereignty should be rooted in.

Their platform embraced “popular sovereignty”—a code for introducing slavery into the territories.

Despite its autocratic tendencies, the Iranian regime goes to great extremes to maintain popular sovereignty.

This is, after all, the only expression of popular sovereignty that Iranians enjoy.

Their virtual assertion of popular sovereignty was temporarily smothered by imported tyranny in the shape of Sir Edmund Andros.

Marcel will break him if he deviate from the right path and refuse to bow before the popular sovereignty.

But there was a chance that one or more of these four pivotal free States might cast its vote for Douglas and popular sovereignty.

What then was the course of the champion of Popular Sovereignty?

There he uses words which reveal the limits of Popular Sovereignty.

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