LIES+YOUR+TEACHER+TOLD+YOU-4


 * Lie: ** A compromise could have averted the Civil War.
 * The Truth: ** The politicians tried really, really hard, but there was just no way around the basic dispute over slavery, and disagreement over tariffs just added fuel to the fire.


 * Lie: ** Lincoln protected civil liberties.
 * The Truth: ** There's no question that Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history. He's venerated for winning the Civil War, saving the United States, and freeing the slaves. But protecting constitutional liberties wasn't one of his strong points. In fact, he placed more temporary restrictions on civil liberties than any other president. Modern legal scholars and historians are sympathetic to Lincoln because of the problems he had to tackle: the country was tearing itself apart, and Lincoln believed extreme measures were justified to put it back together. But this took him into some iffy areas, constitutionally speaking.


 * Lie: ** The South could have won the Civil War.
 * The Truth: ** The South started the Civil War with better troops, better generals, and better morale than the North, but in the end it didn't matter, because the North had more. More what, you ask? More Everything.