The New York Times opinion pages series "Disunion" recently covered President Lincoln's visit to Cleveland on February 15, 1861, just months before the outbreak of the Civil War.

"Disunion revisits and reconsiders America's most perilous period -- using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded."

Cleveland was already an important part of the country's emerging economic heartland, and by 1865 it would be one of the top five refining centers in the United States.

30,000 people lined the streets in anticipation of Lincoln's arrival in Cleveland. He gave a speech in the evening from the balcony of his hotel, the Weddell House, to a crowd of about 10,000. He reassured the audience that the nation's growing crisis was "'artificial,' and would disappear if people relaxed."

"It was an unrealistic hope, and mollified neither his supporters on the Republican side, looking for iron, nor those on the side of secession, for whom their separation was rapidly becoming a reality (Jefferson Davis was en route to his inaugural, only three days away)."

Read the account here.