With the hope of benefiting the situation by the repeal of the Silver Act of 1890, President Cleveland called an extraordinary session of the Fifty-third Congress, which met August 7, 1893. In the Senate were 44 Democrats and 38 Republicans, one Independent and two Farmers' Alliance; the House was composed of 220 Democrats and 128 Republicans and eight Populists, and organized by electing Chas. F. Crisp, of Georgia, Speaker. On November 1, 1893, a Bill was passed repealing the Silver purchase law of 1890, but in both branches of Congress there was a majority in favor of free coinage, and this fact, notwithstanding that nothing was or could be done in the way of legislation, on this subject, although it was attempted several times, continued to disturb the nation's financial and commercial interests. Business conditions gradually continued to grow worse, and this situation confronted the second session of the Fifty-third Congress, which met on December 3, 1893. The Democratic Party in the House immediately took up the proposition of repealing the McKinley tariff law, and on December 19th, Mr. Wm. L. Wilson, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, presented the Wilson Tariff Bill to the House, and it was passed by that body February 1, 1894. In the Senate it met with Democratic opposition, which joined with the Republicans in amending the bill so as to protect certain industries. A compromise was effected with the House, and the mutilated and unsatisfactory bill became a law on August 27, 1894, without President Cleveland's signature. One alarming feature of the panic of 1893 was that, as the industrial conditions continued to grow worse, a lawless and frenzied element made itself felt in alarming strikes in many parts of the country, in some instances making necessary the calling out of the Regular Army. Another manifestation of alarming and revolutionary tendency was the marching on Washington of two armies of men to demand action from the Government, relieving their distress; their number and character, however, did not represent the best spirit of the American people, but that conditions were so alarming as to cause such a movement is indeed a matter for serious reflection.