Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890. The purpose of this Act was to restore competition in business by outlawing monopolies. To protect free trade, the law prohibits contracts, combinations and conspiracies which restrain trade or commerce among the states or with foreign nations. The law applied to formal cartels and monopolistic corporations. It declared that those who monopolize or conspire to monopolize any part of trade or commerce guilty of a felony. The chief actor of the Sherman Antitrust Acts was John Sherman, who was a senator from Ohio and chairman of the Senate finance committee. The Sherman Antitrust Act, unlike other state laws that were enacted at that time, was based on the constitutional