Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Clayton, Henry De Lamar dĕ lˈəmärˌ [key], 1857–1929, U.S. congressman, b. Barbour co., Ala. A Democrat, he was a member of the House of Representatives from 1897 to 1915 and later a federal dis...

(Encyclopedia) Canada Act, also called the Constitutional Act of 1982, which made Canada a fully sovereign state. The British Parliament approved it on Mar. 25, 1982, and Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed it on Apr. 17,...

(Encyclopedia) Patriot Act: see USA PATRIOT Act. ...

(Encyclopedia) Nonimportation Act: see Embargo Act of 1807. ...

(Encyclopedia) Nonintercourse Act: see Embargo Act of 1807. ...

(Encyclopedia) Preemption Act, statute passed (1841) by the U.S. Congress in response to the demands of the Western states that squatters be allowed to preempt lands. Pioneers often settled on public lands before th...

(Encyclopedia) Test Act, 1673, English statute that excluded from public office (both military and civil) all those who refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, who refused to receive the communion acc...

(Encyclopedia) Stamp Act, 1765, revenue law passed by the British Parliament during the ministry of George Grenville. The first direct tax to be levied on the American colonies, it required that all newspapers, pamp...

(Encyclopedia) Neutrality Act, law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Aug., 1935. It was designed to keep the United States out of a possible European war by banning shi...

(Encyclopedia) Homestead Act, 1862, passed by the U.S. Congress. It provided for the transfer of 160 acres (65 hectares) of unoccupied public land to each homesteader on payment of a nominal fee after five years of ...