Acts & Treaties
Navigation Acts: (1651) required colonists to buy goods only from England and sell certain % of goods
to England; non-English goods had duties and were shipped through English ports
-vice-admiralty courts & boards of trade
Proclamation of 1763: forbid colonial settlement past Appalachians
Sugar Act: (1764) passed by Parliament on colonists; made new duties and deterred molasses
smugglers; made specifically to gain revenue
Stamp Act: (1765) tax requiring stamps on all legal documents
-made to gain revenue
-affected many colonists, namely lawyers
-vice-admiralty courts took power of prosecution from colonists
Townshend Acts:
-taxed goods from Britain
-some tax $ went to pay tax collectors (colonists couldn't withhold pay)
-writs of assistance let British customs officials search w/o evidence
-suspended NY legislature for not complying to board British troops
Coercive (Intolerable) Acts:
-closed Boston to all 'unnecessary' trade
-revoked Mass. charter and reorganized into less democratic form
-murders in name of crown to be tried in Britain (in response to Boston Massacre)
-governor could forcibly empty private buildings to quarter soldiers
Quebec Act: Catholicism official religion in Quebec; let people there be ruled by French law (no trial by
jury)
Alien and Sedition Acts: allowed government to forcibly expel foreigners and jail newspaper editors for
slander; against Democratic-Republican party
Embargo Act of 1807: Jefferson's response to French and British harassment; shut down America's
import/export business with disasterous results for New England
Removal Act of 1830: gave Jackson funds and authority to move Indians west
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: 1848
-ended Mexican War
-US got NM, TX w/Rio Grande boundary, & other west land
-US paid MX $15 million & took on claims of US citizens on MX
Reconstruction Act of 1867
-first of many acts; collectively they:
-divided former Confederate states into 5 military districts
-harsh readmission terms
Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
-from Wabash v. Illinois
-affirmed federal government's power over interstate commerce, namely RR
-made ICC