12. About the beginning of President Grant's second term, the country was agitated by the CREDIT MOBILIER INVESTIGATION in Congress. The Credit Mobilier was a joint stock company, organized in 1863 for the purpose of constructing public works. In 1867, another company, which had undertaken to build the Pacific Railroad, purchased the charter of the Credit Mobilier, and the capital was increased to three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Owing to the profitableness of the work, the stock rose in value and large dividends were paid to the shareholders. In 1872 it became known that much of this stock _was owned by members of Congress_. A suspicion that those members had voted corruptly in matters affecting the Pacific Railroad seized the public mind, and led to a congressional investigation, in the course of which many scandalous transactions were brought to light. 13. In the autumn of 1873 occurred one of the most disastrous financial panics ever known in the United States. The alarm was given by the failure of Jay Cooke & Company of Philadelphia. Other failures followed in rapid succession. Depositors hurried to the banks and withdrew their money. Business was paralyzed, and many months elapsed before confidence was sufficiently restored to enable merchants and bankers to engage in the usual transactions of trade. [Sidenote: =The Centennial Exposition.=] 14. With the coming of 1876 the people made ready to celebrate the CENTENNIAL OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. The city of Philadelphia was the central point of interest. There, on the 10th of May, the great International Exposition was opened with imposing ceremonies. In Fairmount Park, on the Schuylkill, were erected beautiful buildings to receive the products of art and industry from all nations. By the beginning of summer these stately edifices were filled to overflowing with the richest products, gathered from every clime and country. On the 4th of July the centennial of the great Declaration was commemorated in Philadelphia with an impressive oration by William M. Evarts, of New York, and a National Ode by the poet, Bayard Taylor. The average daily attendance of visitors at the Exposition was over sixty-one thousand. The grounds were open for one hundred and fifty-eight days; and the receipts for admission amounted to more than three million seven hundred thousand dollars. On the 10th of November, the Exposition, the most successful of its kind ever held, was formally closed by the President of the United States. [Sidenote: =The Sioux War.=]