It is the summer of 1893, and here in Chicago, the world's Colombian

exposition is underway. People from all parts of the country have come to wander the

huge campus of gleaming white buildings, marveling at the remarkable

displays in the many pavilions, featuring the best of science, engineering, culture, and

industry.

It is our modern and expanding world

showcased right here in the middle of America. The centerpiece of it all is the

Grand Basin, a man-made body of water representing the wide ocean Christopher Columbus

crossed 400 years ago. At its head is the Republic statue, a towering figure, holding in

one hand a globe and in the other a staff with the word liberty and blazoned

upon it.

The whole exposition is meant to capture the triumphant promise of American achievement,

a young country's emergence as the center of a rapidly

globalizing world.

And on this extra special day, President Grover Cleveland, back again in his second term, has come to join the throngs,

happily shaking hands and giving forth on America's qualities of strength and justice.

But beyond the exposition, here in Chicago and all across America, the rumblings of discord

and panic are beginning to be felt, as a troubled economic storm is brewing that will soon

rain down upon the nation and leave Grover Cleveland's presidency

awash in financial turmoil and political challenges. Today we're talking about the calamity that struck Grover Cleveland's second term in office,

an economic depression, the likes of which the country had never experienced before.

It was in many ways the original Great Depression.

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