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| 1882, May 6 |
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| The Chinese Exclusion Act. The increasing immigration of Chinese, especially in California, caused white workers to riot against the Chinese as early as 1871. The formation of a workingmen's party in that state in 1877 brought the anti-Chinese issue into prominence and to the attention of Congress. The act of 1882 barred Chinese laborers from entrance into the United States for a period of ten years. In 1902 the exclusion was made permanent, and the same act prohibited the immigration of Chinese to the United States from Hawaii and the Philippines. In 1885 an act of Congress prohibited the entrance of all laborers under contract. | 1 |
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| 1883, Jan. 16 |
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| The Pendleton Act. After more or less continual discussion since 1865, Congress provided in this act for a bipartisan commission to set up and administer a system of competitive examinations as a test of fitness for appointment to federal office. It also prohibited the levying of campaign contributions upon federal officeholders. | 2 |
| Tariff Act. The protective principle, so securely established by the Civil War tariffs, remained intact. | 3 |
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| Sept. 8 |
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| The Northern Pacific Railroad was completed (it had been chartered and endowed with an enormous grant of land in 1864). This was the second transcontinental line. The Southern Pacific was the third, and by 1893 no less than five were completed. Other lines threaded their way across the prairies and plains to the mountains, letting in the tide of population that brought the frontier to an end and pushed Native Americans increasingly onto reservations. | 4 |
| U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which had prohibited racially segregated hotels, barber shops, restaurants, theaters, and other public facilities. | 5 |
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