Acts and Legislation
Stamp Act: (1765)
Part of Grenville’s plan to defray the cost of maintaining the British
army along the American frontier.
Revenue stamps were attached to printed matter and legal documents,
newspapers, and insurance papers etc.
For the colonists the main issue was “no taxation without
representation.” Public protests increased until it was repealed in 1766.
Sugar Act: (1764)
Provided for strong enforcement of the duties on
refined sugar and molasses imported into the colonies from non-British
Caribbean sources to reduce smuggling.
It granted a monopoly on the American market to the West Indies sugar
planters.
Toleration Act: (1689)
Act of Parliament granting freedom of worship to non-conformists. It allowed non-conformists their own places
of worship and their own preachers, subject to the acceptance of certain oaths
of allegiance. The act did not apply to
Catholics and Unitarians.
Woolen Act: (1699)
Passed by Parliament to
prohibit the export and inter-colonial sale of certain textiles in an attempt
to protect the British textile industry from forming colonial
manufacturers. Colonists were to only
supply raw material.
Molasses Act: (1733)
A British law that imposed a tax on sugar,
molasses, and rum imported from non-British colonies into North American
colonies. It was intended to maintain
the monopoly of the American sugar market by the West Indies sugarcane
growers. It was the least successful of
the Navigation Acts, since it was avoided by smuggling.
Townshend Acts: (1767)
A series of four acts
passed by the British Parliament in an effort to declare its right of colonial
authority through suspension of a representative assembly and through strict
collection of revenue duties. They posed
an immediate threat to traditions of colonial self-government.
Declaratory Act: (1766)
Stated that the British
Parliament had the same power to tax in the colonies as it did in Great
Britain. Parliament emphasized its
authority to make binding laws on the American colonies.
Currency Act: (1764)
Parliament assumed
control of the colonial currency system.
It banned the issue of any new bills and the re-issue of existing
currency. Parliament preferred a “hard
currency”
System based on the
pound sterling.
Tea Act: (1773)
Legislative plan by the
British to make English tea marketable in America. The North administration hoped to reaffirm Parliament’s right to
levy direct revenue taxes on the colonies.
Lord North had repealed four of the five Townshend duties, but he kept
the tax on tea. This tax led to the
Boston Tea Party (1773).
Quebec Act: (1774)
Mandated that an appointed governor and a council
would lead the Canadian government. The
British also acknowledged that the Catholic Church would enjoy a privileged
position. This concession was to help
diffuse any religious problems since the majority of French people were
Catholic and Canada was a British colony.
The Act also put land north of the Ohio River within the boundary of
Quebec.
Intolerable Acts: (1774)
“Coercive Acts.” Four
corrective actions passed by the British government in retaliation for acts of
colonial defiance. They became the
justification for assembling the First Continental Congress in 1774. The acts included the Boston Port Bill,
Massachusetts Government Act, Administration of Justice, and Coercive act.
Alien and Sedition Acts:
(1798)
Sought to prevent
political protestors and possible spies out of the United States at a time when
war with France was expected. The 3
alien acts were aimed at Irish and French immigrants, who were mostly
pro-French. The Sedition Act banned the
publishing of false or malevolent writings against the government and the
stirring up of opposition to any act of Congress or the president.
Naturalization Act: (1798)
Required that aliens be
residents for 14 years instead of 5 years before they became eligible for U.S.
citizenship.
Embargo Act: (1807)
Stopped the export of American goods and
prohibited American ships from sailing to foreign ports during the Napoleonic
War. It also prohibited foreign ships
from carrying cargo out of American ports.
Jefferson had hoped that the disruption to trade with France and England
would force those countries to recognize American neutrality. Two years later the act was rewritten to
just involve trade with Britain and France.
Jefferson repealed the Act in 1809 since it was basically unsuccessful,
but it was one of the reasons for the War of 1812.
Indian Removal Act of 1830
Congress approved the
appropriation of $500,000 to pay for the relocation of the Five Civilized
Tribes from their traditional land in the southeastern part of the United
States. The Indians would be sent to
reservations west of the Mississippi River, an area known as the Great American
Desert. The Indians were moved despite
the Supreme Court ruling in Worcester vs. Georgia. The Cherokee called the forced march to the
reservations the Trail of Tears because over 3,000 people died on the
journey. This policy was strongly
supported by President Jackson and President Van Buren.
Tariff Act of 1833
(Mongrel Tariff)
A compromise act that
satisfied nobody, duties were lowered on a few items, but increased on most
manufactured goods.
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
Legislation sponsored by Stephen
Douglas, to allow the residents of Kansas and Nebraska to decide the issue of
slavery in their territories. The act
repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had prohibited slavery in the
territories. The legislation also
violated the Compromise of 1850, which had put limits on the expansion of
slavery. The act led to the Bleeding of
Kansas.
Homestead Act of 1862
Provided settlers with
160 acres of surveyed public land after payment of a filing fee and five years
of continuous residency. It was
designed to encourage westward expansion.
This act was passed over opposition from Democrats and members of the
border states.
Morrill Land Grant Act
(1862)
The legislation gave
states that had remained in the Union 30,000 acres, multiplied by the number of
congressmen representing that state, to establish agricultural and mechanical
colleges.
Emancipation Proclamation
(1863)
Emancipated the slaves
in the southern states but did not free all slaves: only in states under
Confederate control. It also allowed
black soldiers to fight in the Union army, as well tying the issue of slavery
to the Civil War. Lincoln realized that
reality of emancipation was a long way off, but this was the start. Real emancipation came with the 13th
Amendment in 1865.
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
Legislation that was
passed during Reconstruction that was designed to implement Radical
Reconstruction and remove Lincoln’s more lenient 10 percent Plan. The legislation was based on the belief that
the Confederate states had left the Union and they could not be readmitted
until certain conditions applied. All
hostility had to have ceased, a majority of white citizens had to take an oath
of allegiance to the Union, then Senate had the power to authorize appointments
of provisional governors, the states had to adopt a constitution renouncing
secession, ending slavery, and taking the vote away from leading Confederate
officeholders. The federal government
would then repay Confederate debts.
Lincoln used his pocket veto on the bill, which led to the Wade-Davis
Manifesto. The Manifesto appearing in
the New York Tribune attacked the president for being too lenient on the
South.
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Passed over President
Johnson’s veto this legislation conferred citizenship on all blacks. The act also stated the rights of blacks as
they pertained to property and in seeking redress in the court system. Eventually the 14th Amendment was created to
make sure the act was not changed.
Tenure of Office Act
(1867)
Passed over President
Johnson’s veto, this legislation prevented the president from dismissing from
office any appointment that had required the approval of the Senate. Johnson tested the act when he fired
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. When
Johnson was impeached most of the charges stemmed from the president violating
this act.
Enforcement Acts of 1870
and 1871
Legislation passed in
1870 and 1871 to give power to the 15th Amendment. It imposed harsh penalties on anyone
convicted of preventing any citizen from voting. In 1871 it expanded federal control over state elections and
outlawed white supremacy group like the Ku Klux Klan.
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Legislation signed by
President Grant to allow blacks to be on juries, and not be barred from hotels, bars, and trolley cars.
Bland-Allison Act (1878)
The original bill
proposed by Representative Bland and supported by the western states suggested
the unlimited coinage of silver, but it did not pass the Senate. Senator Allison amended the original to
require the treasury to purchase between $2 million and $4 million of silver
bullion each month at market value.
This silver was to be minted into silver dollars and made legal
tender. The act was eventually replaced
by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890).
Pendleton Act (1883)
After the assassination of
Pres. Garfield by a deranged office-seeker, Congress initiated political
reform to remove the spoils system. The
legislation prohibited campaign contribution from federal employees and created
the Civil Service Commission. The
Pendleton Act did not eliminate corruption, but it was a start. One of the major drawbacks was that it
forced politicians to get funds from corporations.