forty-seven-forty

Updated: July 15, 2025

All territory south of latitude 47° 40' must be acknowledged as American, or the dispute must be left to the arbitrament of arms. "Forty-seven-forty or fight!" was the almost unanimous cry of the Democracy of the North and West. The Secretary of State set himself against the Northern Jingoes, and though his motives may have been sectional, his arguments were really unanswerable.

Cecil Chesterton - A History of the United States