What role did the panic of 1893 play in the election of 1896?

The Panic of 1893 was a major economic crisis in the United States, the largest it had seen up to that time. Many Americans saw the panic as a result of increased railroad speculation after the Civil War and a rigid attachment to the gold standard. The panic gave power to the Populists, a political movement of farmers who opposed the growing power of industrialists, and brought the issue of eliminating the gold standard to the center of the 1896 election.