The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first Act passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts.
It passed the Senate by a vote of 51-1 on April 8, 1890 and then passed the house by a unanimous vote of 242-0 on June 20, 1890. The bill was signed into law on July 2, 1890 by then President Benjamin Harrison.
The Sherman Act authorized the Federal Government to dissolve trusts but failed to define the critical terms in the law. In spite of that, the law achieved some success against some famous trusts such as Standard Oil Company, American Tobacco Company, and 100 years later, Microsoft.
I like this document because it has everything they wrote to pass the Sherman Antitrust Act. It also shows all the signatures to be sure this is real.
The first wave of U.S mergers and acquisitions occurred from 1897 to 1904,occurred shortly after the passage of the Sherman Act.This means that the first U.S. antitrust laws do not prevent the United States brought the first wave of mergers and acquisitions in the industry.