Editing J. P. Morgan (section)

===Panic of 1893 and election of 1896===
At the depths of the [[Panic of 1893]], around 1895, the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] nearly depleted its gold reserves. Morgan put forward a plan for the federal government to buy gold from his and European banks, but it was declined in favor of a plan to sell government bonds directly to the general public. Morgan demanded a meeting with President [[Grover Cleveland]], where he claimed the United States government could default that day if action was not taken.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Morgan came up with a plan to use an old [[American Civil War|Civil War]] statute{{which|date=January 2023}} that allowed Morgan and the [[Rothschild & Co|Rothschilds]] to sell 3.5&nbsp;million ounces<ref>The value of the gold would have been approximately $72&nbsp;million at the official price of $20.67 per ounce (equal to ${{Inflation|US|20.67|1895|fmt=c}} today) at the time. [http://www.nma.org/pdf/gold/his_gold_prices.pdf "Historical Gold Prices – 1833 to Present"]; [[National Mining Association]]; retrieved December 22, 2011.</ref> of gold directly to the U.S. Treasury in exchange for a 30-year bond issue.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biography.com/people/jp-morgan-9414735|website=Biography.com|title=J.P. Morgan: Biography|publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC|access-date=December 8, 2015}}</ref> The episode saved the Treasury but hurt Cleveland's standing with the populist agrarian wing of the [[History of the United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]], ensuring his political career was over. In the [[1896 United States presidential election]], bankers came under a withering attack from [[William Jennings Bryan]], and Morgan was among many who donated heavily to Republican [[William McKinley]].<ref name="test">[[John Steele Gordon|Gordon, John Steele]] (Winter 2010). {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100702060356/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2010/4/2010_4_66.shtml |date=July 2, 2010 |title="The Golden Touch" }}, American Heritage.com; retrieved December 22, 2011; archived from [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2010/4/2010_4_66.shtml the original] on July 10, 2010.</ref>