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| 6736918426 | Toleration Act | 1649: Guaranteed freedom of religion to anyone in the colony of Maryland "professing to believe" in Jesus Christ. Purpose was to ensure toleration for Catholics in Maryland. | 0 | |
| 6736918427 | Navigation Acts | 1650-1673: Series of acts to enforce mercantilist policy in the colonies. All trade was to be carried on English ships (or colonial ships with English crews). Imports to the colonies were required to go through English ports. Certain colonial goods were to be sold only to England (tobacco originally, expanded later). | 1 | |
| 6736918428 | Proclamation Act | 1763: Made at the end of the French & Indian War. Prohibited the settlement of British settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains. Goal was to restrict settlement until peace negotiations with Indians could be completed. Colonists were upset because it restricted their freedom. | 2 | |
| 6736918429 | Sugar Act | 1764: (Revenue Act) Purpose was to raise revenue. Duties were placed on sugar and molasses imported into the North American colonies from the West Indies. | 3 | |
| 6736918430 | Quartering Act | 1765: Required colonists to provide food and living quarters for British troops. | 4 | |
| 6736918431 | Stamp Act | 1765: Required all legal documents, licenses, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards to carry a tax stamp. These items had long been taxed at a higher rate in England. This was the first direct tax to be paid by buyers in the colonies. | 5 | |
| 6736918432 | Declaratory Act | 1766: Passed at the same time the Stamp Act was repealed. Proclaimed that Parliament had a right to tax and make colonial laws "in all cases whatsoever." | 6 | |
| 6736918433 | Townshend Acts | 1767: Called for the suspension of the New York Assembly for defiance of the Quartering Act. Placed import duties on tea, glass, and paper. Revenue raised was to be used to pay crown officials, who were independence of the colonial government. | 7 | |
| 6736918434 | Townshend Acts (Repealed) | 1770: The Townshend Acts were repealed, but a small, symbolic tact on tea was retained. | 8 | |
| 6736918435 | Intolerable Acts | 1774: (Coercive Acts) Reaction to Boston Tea Party. Many laws passed at the same time. The port of Boston was closed. Reduced the power of Massachusetts legislature. Royal officials were to be tried in England. Expanded the Quartering Act. Led to the call for the First Continental Congress. | 9 | |
| 6736918436 | Quebec Act | 1774: Called a "good act in bad company." Organized Canadian lands received from France and allowed Canadians to continue their established traditions. Angered the colonists, who viewed the Quebec Act as favoritism. | 10 | |
| 6736918437 | Land Ordinance Act | 1785: Provided for the surveying of western territories into six-square-mile townships before sale. Townships were to be subdivided into 36 sections of 640 acres each. | 11 | |
| 6736918438 | Northwest Ordinance | 1787: Set the rules for achieving territorial status and then statehood. Outlawed slavery in the Old Northwest. | 12 | |
| 6736918439 | Hamilton's Financial Program | 1790: Proposed the federal assumption of state debts and the establishment of a national bank. Included an extensive program for the federal stimulation of industrial development through subsidies and tax incentives. Funding came from an excise tax on whiskey and from tariffs on imports. | 13 | |
| 6736918440 | Alien & Sedition Acts | 1798: The Alien Act raised new hurdles in the path of immigrants trying to obtain citizenship - to become a citizen one now had to live in the country for 14 years instead of 5. The Sedition Act broadened the powers of the Adams administration to muzzle newspaper critics. | 14 | |
| 6736918441 | Virginia & Kentucky Resolves | 1798-1799: Madison and Jefferson came up with these resolves in response to Alien and Sedition Acts. They proposed that states be empowered to nullify federal laws. The resolves were only adopted in Kentucky and Virginia, and thus died. | 15 | |
| 6736918442 | Missouri Compromise | 1820: Henry Clay proposed that the Louisiana Purchase be divided at 36°30' - the north for non-slave states and the south for slave states. Meanwhile, Missouri would become a slave state and Maine a free state, thus balancing representation in the Senate. | 16 | |
| 6736918443 | Tariff of Abominations | 1828: Increased the import tariff to levels deemed intolerable by the South, which relied on foreign trade. | 17 | |
| 6736918444 | Tariff of 1832 | 1832: Lowered the tariff rates, but South Carolina protested because the reform was not extensive enough. | 18 | |
| 6736918445 | Compromise Tariff | 1833: Henry Clay's compromise tariff provided a gradual reduction of rates over time to 1816 levels and was accompanied by the Force Bill. | 19 | |
| 6736918446 | Compromise of 1850 | 1850: Compromise over admission of states from the Mexican Cession. California became a free state, the slave trade was abolished in Washington D.C., the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, and the territories of new Mexico and Utah were established on the basis of popular sovereignty, which would allow the people in the territory to decide if the territory should be slave or free. | 20 | |
| 6736918447 | Kansas-Nebraska Act | 1854: Turned lands west of Missouri and Iowa into the Kansas and Nebraska territories. The slavery issue in the new territories was to be decided by popular sovereignty. This overturned the Missouri Compromise. | 21 | |
| 6736918448 | Homestead Act | 1862: Declared that any head of a family who was a U.S. citizen could acquire 160 acres of land in new territories by paying a small registration fee and living on the land for 5 years. | 22 | |
| 6736918449 | Pacific Railway Act | 1862: Authorized land subsidies and money subsidies for the construction of a transcontinental railroad. | 23 | |
| 6736918450 | Morill Land Grant Act | 1862: Provided states 30,000 acres for each member of Congress. The land was to be used to support state mechanical and agricultural colleges. | 24 | |
| 6736918451 | Wade-Davis Bill | 1864: Said that a majority of those who had been alive to vote in 1860 would have to swear an "ironclad" oath that they were loyal to the federal government, and had never been disloyal. Lincoln vetoed the bill. | 25 | |
| 6736918452 | Timber & Stone Act | 1878: Allowed any person to acquire forest at $2.50 and acre if the land was "unfit for cultivation." | 26 | |
| 6736918453 | Bland Allison Act | 1878: Authorized the Treasury Department to purchase $2 to $4 million worth of silver bullion per month to coin silver. | 27 | |
| 6736918454 | Pendleton Act | 1883: Provided the President a way to determine the fitness of applicants for office by way of a competitive exam. | 28 | |
| 6736918455 | Interstate Commerce Act | 1887: Provided for the creation of a commission to oversee rates on railways, end discriminatory practices, and require annual reports and financial statements. | 29 | |
| 6736918456 | Sherman Anti-Trust Act | 1890: Made to prevent corporations from engaging in monopolistic practices that were seen as "combination in restraint of trade." Used to shut down several businesses. Found unconstitutional in the case of E.C. Knight vs. United States. | 30 | |
| 6736918457 | Sherman Silver Purchase Act | 1890: Silver interests passed legislation authorizing Congress to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver each month at market price and issue treasury notes redeemable in gold and silver. This act was repealed in 1893. | 31 | |
| 6736918458 | McKinley Tariff | 1890: This protective tariff promised by the Republicans in 1888 extended to industrial and agricultural goods. The act also included reciprocal trade provisions that allowed the President to retaliate against nations that discriminated against U.S. products and reward countries that opened their markets to American goods. | 32 | |
| 6736918459 | Pure Food and Drug Act | 1906: Forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of "adulterated" or mislabeled foods or drugs in interstate commerce. This was a direct response to Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." | 33 | |
| 6736918460 | Meat Inspection Act | 1906: Aimed to eliminate the dangerous and unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry. This was a direct response to Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." | 34 | |
| 6736918461 | Clayton Antitrust Act | 1914: Strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act, was more specific as to what actions constituted a "trust". Samuel Gompers called the act the "Magna Carta of organized labor" because it removed the restrictions on labor unions put into place by the Sherman Antitrust Act. | 35 | |
| 6736918462 | Espionage Act | 1917: Provided severe penalties for persons found guilty of aiding the enemy or refusal to serve in the US Military. Charles Schenck's violation of this law was the subject of the 1919 case of Schenck vs US. | 36 | |
| 6736918463 | Volstead Act | 1919: Provided for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition). | 37 | |
| 6736918464 | Adjusted Compensation Act | 1924: Provided for the payment of adjusted compensation (bonus) to all veterans of WWI. It was payment of this bonus that the Bonus Army was after when they marched on Washington in 1931. | 38 | |
| 6736918465 | Hawley-Smoot Tariff | 1930: Shaarp increase of tariff rates on more than 20,000 imported goods. President Hoover thought that this would alleviate the pains of the Great Depression, but most economists blame the Hawley-Smoot. | 39 | |
| 6736918466 | Reconstruction Finance Corporation | 1932: An attempt by Herbert Hoover to address the problems of the Great Depression by giving billions of dollars in loans to banks and businesses. The act was criticized because it did not give direct relief to the poor. Tariff with sinking the U.S. deeper into the Depression. | 40 | |
| 6736918467 | Norris-LaGuardia Act | 1932: Also known as the "Anti-Injunction Act", it barred federal courts from issuing injunctions to halt labor disputes. The act also outlawed the "yellow-dog contract". | 41 | |
| 6736918468 | National Industrial Recovery Act | 1933: Created the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and the Public Works Administration (PWA). The NIRA was later ruled unconstitutional in the 1935 case of Schecter Poultry v. U.S. | 42 | |
| 6736918469 | Federal Emergency Relief Act | 1933: Created the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) to aid the states through grants. | 43 | |
| 6736918470 | Agricultural Adjustment Act | 1933: Established the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) which paid farmers subsidies to farm less land and therefore drive crop prices up. | 44 | |
| 6736918471 | Glass-Steagall Act | 1933: Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for guaranteeing individual bank deposits. | 45 | |
| 6736918472 | Wagner Act | 1935: Also known as the National Labor Relations Act, created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). | 46 | |
| 6736918473 | Lend-Lease Act | 1941: Enabled any country whose defense is deemed necessary to the nation to acquire arms and other war supplies from the US. This arrangement to help the UK during the Battle of Britain followed the earlier "Cash and Carry" and "Destroyers for Bases" programs. | 47 | |
| 6736918474 | Taft-Hartley Act | 1947: Passed over Truman's veto, this act heavily restricted the actions of Unions including banning the "closed shop" and forbidding union contributions to political campaigns. Allowed the federal government to apply for injunctions to stop strikes. | 48 | |
| 6736918475 | National Security Act | 1947: Combined all military departments into a single department, Defense. James Forrestal was the first Secretary of Defense. | 49 | |
| 6736918476 | Civil Rights Act | 1964: Among other provisions, it outlawed discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, or sex. It created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate claims of discrimination. | 50 | |
| 6736918477 | Voting Rights Act | 1965: Eliminated literacy and other tests as requirements for voting. | 51 | |
| 6736918478 | Occupational Safety and Health Act | 1970: (OSHA) Mandated that employers provide employment "free from recognized hazards to employees." | 52 | |
| 6736918479 | War Powers Act | 1973: Set a sixty day limit on the presidential commitment of troops to hostilities abroad without Congressional approval. Passed over Nixon's veto, the act is considered by many to be a reaction to LBJ's actions with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. | 53 | |
| 6736918480 | Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act | 1985: Required Congress to balance the budget. | 54 | |
| 6736918481 | McCain-Feingold Act | 2002: Regulates campaign financing. Specifically, it targets "soft money" contributions and "issue ads" not financed by a specific candidate. | 55 | |
| 6736918482 | Affordable Health Care Act | 2011: Also known as Obamacare, the act authorizes universal health coverage. | 56 |
