The opposition at once undertook by amendments to instruct the ministers, and generally to go beyond the powers of the House.
The real ground of the attack was slavery, threatened, as was supposed, by the attitude of the South American republics--a fact which no one understood or cared to recognize.

Mr.Webster stood forth as the champion of the Executive.

In an elaborate speech of great ability he denounced the unconstitutional attempt to interfere with the prerogative of the President, and discussed with much effect the treaty-making power assailed on another famous occasion, many years before, by the South, and defended at that time also by the eloquence of a representative of Massachusetts.
Mr.Webster showed the nature of the Panama Congress, defended its objects and the policy of the administration, and made a full and fine exposition of the intent of the "Monroe doctrine." The speech was an important and effective one.

It exhibited in an exceptional way Mr.Webster's capacity for discussing large questions of public and constitutional law and foreign policy, and was of essential service to the cause which he espoused.

It was imbued, too, with that sentiment of national unity which occupied a larger space in his thoughts with each succeeding year, until it finally pervaded his whole career as a public man.
At the second session of the same Congress, after a vain effort to confer upon the country the benefit of a national bankrupt law, Mr.Webster was again called upon to defend the Executive in a much more heated conflict than that aroused by the Panama resolution.