Finney, Charles Grandison Marine Bank of New York, Penn Banks of Pittsburgh, and over 10,000 other businesses failed PANIC OF 1893 Precipitated in part by a run on the gold supply, the panic of 1893 marked a serious decline in the U.S economy Economic historians believe that the panic of 1893 was the worst economic crisis in American history to that point and they draw attention to several possible causes for it Too many people tried to redeem silver notes for gold, eventually exceeding the limit for the minimum amount of gold in federal reserves and making U.S notes for gold unredeemable The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad went bankrupt, and the Northern Pacific Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad failed The National Cordage Company, the most actively traded stock of the time, went into receivership, a series of bank failures followed, and the price of silver fell, as well as agriculture prices A total of over 15,000 companies and 500 banks failed At the panic’s peak, about 18 percent of the workforce was unemployed, with the largest number of jobless people concentrated in the industrial cities and mill towns Coxey’s Army, a group of unemployed men from Ohio and Pennsylvania, marched to Washington to demand relief In 1894 a series of strikes swept over the country, including the Pullman Strike that shut down most of the transportation system The panic of 1893 merged into the panic of 1896, but this proved to be less serious than other panics of the era It was caused by a drop in silver reserves and market anxiety about the effects that it would have on the gold standard Commodities deflation drove the stock market to new lows, a trend that did not reverse until after William McKinley became president Stephen Williamson, associate professor of economics at Ottawa University, compared financial panics in Canada with those in the United States He concluded in part that the Canadian banking system experienced fewer panics because it was better regulated and well diversified See also Banks of the United States, First and Second; railroads in North America Further reading: Faulker, Harold Politics, Reform and Expansion, 1890–1900 New York: Harper & Bros., 1959; Huston, James L The Panic of 1857 and the Coming of the Civil War Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987; Schwantes, Carlos A Coxey’s Army, an American Odyssey Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985; 131 Stampp, Kenneth America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; White, Gerald T The United States and the Problem of Recovery after 1893 Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1982 Michael J Schroeder Finney, Charles Grandison (1792–1875) American theologian Charles Grandison Finney was one of the most prominent evangelists of the Second Great Awakening in 19th-century America He was born on August 29, 1792, in Warren, Connecticut When he was two years old his family moved to Hanover, New York After graduating from Oneida Academy, Finney taught from 1808 to 1812 in the school district of Henderson, New York In 1816 he became a clerk in the law office of Judge Benjamin Wright in Adams, New York In 1818 Finney opened his own law firm In October 1821 Finney experienced religious conversion He left his law practice and began an informal study of the Bible In July 1824 he was ordained a Presbyterian minister He identified himself as a Congregationalist for most of his life From 1824 to 1833 Finney led religious revivals and preached throughout the northeastern United States He was most active in northern New York, where he was a very popular evangelist, and in particular Rochester, where he was invited to live by that city’s religious and business leaders In 1832 Finney became the minister of the Second Free Presbyterian Church of New York City He also helped to establish seven other Presbyterian churches in New York City In 1835 the wealthy merchants Arthur and Lewis Tappan, who were the financial sponsors of Oberlin Theological Seminary, invited him to come to the seminary and establish its theology department Finney accepted their offer but continued to preach at his church At Oberlin Seminary he held a number of teaching positions, including professor of systematic theology and professor of pastoral theology, as well as teaching courses in moral philosophy Finney served as the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Oberlin and as a member of the seminary’s board of trustees from 1846 to 1851 He was elected president of Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1851, a position he held until 1865 While at the seminary, Finney founded what became known as “Oberlin Theology,” which embodied his belief that an individual