The Panic of 1893 was intensified by the failure of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
The railroad entered receivership in February 1893, helping undermine confidence in heavily indebted railway companies and the banks that financed them. The crisis deepened when the National Cordage Company failed in May. Bank runs, business closures, falling stock prices, and unemployment spread across the United States.
The panic also put pressure on the government's gold reserves because investors sought to exchange paper currency for gold. President Grover Cleveland eventually secured a private gold syndicate led by J. P. Morgan and August Belmont to replenish the Treasury's reserves in 1895.
The event is often associated with the debate over silver and gold, which intensified during the depression. It is separate from the Panic of 1873, although both crises were connected to railroad speculation and financial instability.