American Policy

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 required states to return fugitive slaves to other states from which they had fled. The law was enacted by Congress in reaction to a dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia over the kidnapping of a black man in Pennsylvania by three Virginians. The act provided alleged fugitive slaves with no protection of habeas corpus, no right to trial by jury, and no right to testify on their own behalf. 

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed by Congress as one provision of the Compromise of 1850. The harsh terms of the act angered many Northerners and contributed to the sectional division over slavery that led to the American Civil War.

The Gag Rule consisted of a series of changes to the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives that prohibited the introduction of petitions related to slavery between 1836 and 1844.

Jay’s Treaty (1794) was an important treaty between the United States and Great Britain that helped ease tension between the two nations. Widely criticized in America, the treaty was beneficial to Great Britain but helped the United States avoid war.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was introduced by Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas to expedite the formation of new territories in the Louisiana Purchase west of Missouri.

The Militia Act of 1862 boosted the size of the Union's armed forces by authorizing the enlistment of African-Americans and by empowering the president to order governors to draft citizens into state militias to meet federal manpower quotas.

The Missouri Compromise comprised legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 1820 that attempted to resolve sectional disputes over the extension of slavery in western territories of the United States.

Issued by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation stated that people held in slavery in designated areas in rebellion against the United States as of January 1, 1863 would be freed from bondage.

Issued by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, Presidential Proclamation 93, also known as the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation stated that people held in slavery in areas designated in rebellion against the United States as of January 1, 1863, would be freed from bondage.

Concluded on May 21, 1861, the Price-Harney Agreement was an unsuccessful attempt to maintain peace in Missouri at the onset of the American Civil War.

The Reconstruction Acts started the process of Congressional Reconstruction. Designed by the Radical Republicans, they imposed strict conditions on former Confederate States to rejoin the Union. The four bills were passed by Congress between March 2, 1867 and March 11, 1868.

The Suffolk Reserves were written by Joseph Warren, in response to the Restraining Acts.

The Tariff of 1832 was an attempt to address Southern grievances over the high protective duties imposed by the Tariff of 1828. Hostility toward the new tariff in South Carolina nearly led to civil war.

Approved by Congress on March 1, 1833 and signed by President Andrew Jackson the next day, the Tariff of 1833 was a compromise measure brokered by Senators Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun as part of a successful effort to resolve the Nullification Crisis of 1832-33.

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution achieved ratification by the states on December 6, 1865. The amendment abolished the practice of slavery in the United States — except as a punishment for a crime — and provided Congress with broad powers to ensure the enforcement of the amendment.

The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were written by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Resolutions established the idea of Nullification.

The Wade-Davis Bill was an attempt to impose harsh Reconstruction terms on the South. It was co-authored by Ohio Senator Benjamin Wade and Maryland Congressman Henry Winter Davis in 1864. The bill was pocket vetoed by President Lincoln.

Introduced by Democratic Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, the Wilmot Proviso would have banned the extension of slavery into any territories Mexico ceded to the U.S. after the Mexican-American War. Although never enacted by Congress, the Wilmot Proviso hastened the division of the American political landscape along sectional lines, ultimately contributing to the onset of the Civil War.