But the summer passed and business grew better rather than worse. In September Mr. Cleveland went to Philadelphia to the centenary of the Constitution and there he met Mr. Fairchild. The two talked matters over and agreed that no extra session would be needed. “I was almost sorry,” Mr. Cleveland once told the writer “—not sorry that the trouble was over, but that my opportunity was lost.” But the _cause_ of the trouble remained and continued to worry the President. It continued, too, to worry the country. Ugly evidences of this were continually coming from press and people. Mr. Cleveland was accused of not realizing the situation, of fearing the Randall faction of his party, of doing nothing because he was playing for a second term,—the old-time charges against the man who in a difficult situation with a divided party behind him, studies his case and waits for a favorable moment to act. Later in September, something happened which set everybody agog. Secretary Fairchild and Speaker Carlisle were reported to be at Oak View in consultation with the President and Mr. Randall was not present. It was taken as a sign that the President had concluded to ignore the Randall faction. But Mr. Cleveland did nothing more at the September council than to get the opinion of his colleagues on the situation; he did not reveal his plan of campaign, though at that moment he had it in mind, indeed had practically decided upon it, and a bold, original plan it was. Mr. Cleveland had come to the conclusion that the country must be forced to think about the tariff and its relation to the business disorders, and that the only way open to him to force this attention was to devote his entire forthcoming message to Congress to that subject. No such thing had ever been done by a President of the United States. But there was no constitutional objection to the idea. Nothing but precedent was against it and Mr. Cleveland concluded that here was a case where the breaking of a precedent was more useful than the observance. For weeks he turned the matter over in his mind, taking nobody into his confidence, until finally early in November he told his cabinet what he had determined upon. He regretted, he said, not to use their several reports as was the custom, particularly when everybody had made so good a showing, but in his judgment the situation justified the action. There was not an objector to the suggestion; on the contrary, there was hearty and unanimous approval. Every member of the cabinet seems to have realized that the President had hit on a move of undoubted wisdom.