The Reconstruction Era
DIRECTIONS: Multiple Choice Indicate the answer choice that best completes the
statement or answers the question.
"The military rule which (the First Reconstruction Act) establishes is plainly to be
used, not for any purpose of order or for the prevention of crime, but solely as a
means of coercing the people into the adoption of principles and measures to which
It is known that they are opposed, and upon which they have an undeniable right to
exercise their own judgment.
"I submit to Congress whether this measure is not in ... palpable conflict with the
plainest provisions of the Constitution, and utterly destructive to those great
principles of liberty and humanity for which our ancestors on both sides of the
Atlantic have shed so much blood and expended so much treasure.
-President Andrew Johnson, 1867
This excerpt, from a message to Congress by Johnson, argues that the First
Reconstruction Act
A. is necessary to maintain order in the South
B. is unconstitutional
C. will help African Americans achleve equality.
D. will speed economic recovery in the North.