The new government was faced with a major challenge: the Chamber of Deputies was divided into three groups: the ultraconservatives, the Moderates and the Liberals.[65] Paranhos and Caxias named men who were either ultraconservatives or Moderates to the remaining portfolios, in an attempt to weaken the reinvigorated Liberal opposition and consolidate a workable governing majority.[65] Despite successfully recruiting enough supporters from outside the party to form a government, the Cabinet was hobbled from the outset by its lack of internal unity. It was doomed when Paranhos's friend and former colleague in the Conciliation Cabinet, José Tomás Nabuco de Araújo, delivered a speech advocating a merger of Moderate Conservatives and Liberals into a truly new political party.[69]