AP US History - Acts & Laws Flashcards
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| 13857759351 | Toleration Act 1649 | the colony of Maryland "professing to believe" in Jesus Christ. Purpose was to ensure toleration for Catholics in Maryland. | 0 | |
| 13857759352 | 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 | |
| 13857759353 | 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 | |
| 13857759354 | 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 | |
| 13857759355 | Quartering Act 1765 | Required colonists to provide food and living quarters for British troops. | 4 | |
| 13857759356 | 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 | |
| 13857759357 | Declaratory Act 1766 | Passed at the same time the Stamp Act was repealed.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 | |
| 13857759358 | 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 | |
| 13857759359 | 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. | 8 | |
| 13857759360 | 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. | 9 | |
| 13857759361 | Northwest Ordinance 1787 | Set the rules for achieving territorial status and then statehood. Outlawed slavery in the Old Northwest. | 10 | |
| 13857759362 | 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. | 11 | |
| 13857759363 | Alien & Sedition Acts 1798 | : 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. broadened the powers of the Adams administration to muzzle newspaper critics. | 12 | |
| 13857759364 | embargo act 1807 | prohibited US merchant vessels from anchoring at any foreign port; jefferson hoped this would hurt british/french economies, he was WRONG; most damage inflicted on new england merchants; harsh enforcement laws were passed to uphold it | 13 | |
| 13857759365 | non-intercourse act 1809 | passed in last days of jeffersons presidency; replaced embargo act; allowed US to trade with foreign nations except britain & france | 14 | |
| 13857759366 | tariff of 1816 | created to prevent cheap british goods from flooding the market/hurting manufacturing; imposed 20% duty on all imported goods | 15 | |
| 13857759367 | 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 | |
| 13857759368 | Tariff of Abominations 1828 | : Increased the import tariff to levels deemed intolerable by the South, which relied on foreign trade. | 17 | |
| 13857759369 | indian removal act 1830 | provided for immediate resettlement of indians in MS, AL, FL, GA, & IL; these were "civilized" tribes; by 1835 100,000 were forcibly removed | 18 | |
| 13857759370 | Compromise Tariff | : Henry Clay's compromise tariff provided a gradual reduction of rates over time to 1816 levels and was accompanied by the Force Bill. | 19 | |
| 13857759371 | wilmot proviso- vetoed | aimed to forbid slavery in the new land acquired from the war with mexico; bill passed through the house but not senate | 20 | |
| 13857759372 | specie circular | this issuance of jackson required the payment of federal lands to be made in hard coin (specie) rather than banknotes; caused paper money's value to drop, leading to the panic of 1837 | 21 | |
| 13857759373 | fugitive slave law 1850 | designed to re-enslave those slaves who had made it to freedom; law denied legal rights to captured blacks & sentenced whites who harbored fugitives to heavy fines or jail time | 22 | |
| 13857759374 | Compromise of 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. | 23 | |
| 13857759375 | 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. | 24 | |
| 13857759376 | 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. | 25 | |
| 13857759377 | Pacific Railway Act 1862 | : Authorized land subsidies and money subsidies for the construction of a transcontinental railroad. | 26 | |
| 13857759378 | morril land grant 1862 | gave federal lands to states for the purpose of building schools that would teach agriculture & technical trades | 27 | |
| 13857759379 | 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. | 28 | |
| 13857759380 | civil rights bill 1866 | designed to destroy black codes by giving blacks full citizenship; johnson vetoed it, but congress overturned that | 29 | |
| 13857759381 | reconstructive act 1867 | act placing Southern states under military rule and barring former supporters of the Confederacy from voting. split south into 5 military districts | 30 | |
| 13857759382 | chinese exclusion acts 1882 | , halted Chinese immigration to America; Started when people of the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic troubles to the hated Chinese workers; | 31 | |
| 13857759383 | Pendleton Act 1883 | : Provided the President a way to determine the fitness of applicants for office by way of a competitive exam. | 32 | |
| 13857759384 | 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. | 33 | |
| 13857759385 | dawes act 1887 | stripped indian tribes of their official recognition & land rights; would give individual indian families land/citizenship in 25 years if they behaved | 34 | |
| 13857759386 | 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. | 35 | |
| 13857759387 | 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. | 36 | |
| 13857759388 | underwood tariff 1913 | imposed the first permanent federal income tax on the well-to-do | 37 | |
| 13857759389 | federal trade commission 1914 | created to control monopolies; would monitor interstate business activities & force companies that broke laws to comply with cease & desist orders | 38 | |
| 13857759390 | 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. | 39 | |
| 13857759391 | 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. | 40 | |
| 13857759392 | Volstead Act 1919 | : Provided for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition). | 41 | |
| 13857759393 | dawes plan 1924 | this loan program was crafted to give money to germany so that they could pay war reparations & lessen the financial crisis in europe; the program ended with the 1929 stock market crash | 42 | |
| 13857759394 | national origins act 1924 | Set quotas for each country at 2 % of the number of people from that country living in the U.S. in 1890. The goal was to reduce immigration from certain countries. | 43 | |
| 13857759395 | 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 | 44 | |
| 13857759396 | 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. | 45 | |
| 13857759397 | emergency banking act 1933 | this act reopened solvent banks while the others were absorbed into the government | 46 | |
| 13857759398 | fair labor standards act 1938 | this act established a federal minimum wage & maximum hour for interstate businesses & ensured an end to child labor | 47 | |
| 13857759399 | neutrality act 1939 | this act proclaimed US neutrality in name only; the US provided weapons to european allies on a cash-and-carry basis | 48 | |
| 13857759400 | 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. | 49 | |
| 13857759401 | executive order 9066 1942 | sent japanese-americans to internment camps, ave them 48 hours to pack & leave; the government paid them $20,00 in 1988 as an apology | 50 | |
| 13857759402 | GI bill 1944 | congress passed this bill (aka the servicemen's readjustment act) to provide funding for college education & gave loans to buy houses/start businesses; helped create a career & provide home for the 15 million soldiers returnin from war | 51 | |
| 13857759403 | 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. | 52 | |
| 13857759404 | National Security Act 1947 | : Combined all military departments into a single department, Defense. James Forrestal was the first Secretary of Defense. | 53 | |
| 13857759405 | marshall plan 1947 | truman's secretary of state created this plan to give west europe financial assistance & political support for rebuilding democratic forms of government; congress approved this plan, which would supply $3 bil in aid over a 4 year period; this plan worked extremely well for west europe & by the end of the era the region was self-sufficient | 54 | |
| 13857759406 | national highway act 1956 | this act created the nation's interstate freeway system; it improved the US's infrastructure, provided for quick evacuation of large urban centers, emergency landing of planes, and the transport of missiles | 55 | |
| 13857759407 | civil rights bill 1957 | this bill hoped to ensure that blacks would be able to vote by supporting new division within the federal justice department to monitor civil rights abuses; by the time the bill was enacted, it had been watered down & had barely any impact | 56 | |
| 13857759408 | 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. | 57 | |
| 13857759409 | Voting Rights Act 1965 | : Eliminated literacy and other tests as requirements for voting. | 58 | |
| 13857759410 | Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act 1985 | : Required Congress to balance the budget. | 59 | |
| 13857759411 | McCain-Feingold Act 2002 | : Regulates campaign financing. Specifically, it targets "soft money" contributions and "issue ads" not financed by a specific candidate. | 60 | |
| 13857759412 | 13th amendment | 1865 Abolition of slavery (involuntary servitude). Congress has the power to enforce this via legislation. | 61 | |
| 13857759413 | 14th amendment | 1868 Citizenship given to ex-slaves. Three-fifths clause abolished. Leading ex-Confederates denied office. Ex-Confederates forced to repudiate their debts and pay pensions to their own (CSA) veterans, plus taxes for the pensions of Union veterans. Congress has the power to enforce this via legislation. | 62 | |
| 13857759414 | 15th amendment | 1870 Suffrage given to black males. Congress has the power to enforce this via legislation. | 63 | |
| 13857759415 | 16th amendment | 1913 Income tax established. | 64 | |
| 13857759416 | 17th amendment | 1913 Direct election of senators by popular vote. | 65 | |
| 13857759417 | 24th amendment | 1964 Poll tax abolished. Congress has the power to enforce this via legislation. | 66 | |
| 13857759418 | 19th amendment | 1920 Woman suffrage. | 67 |