principle. He insisted that there was a certain discretionary
power in the House to appropriate or not to appropriate for any object
whatever, whether that object were authorized or not. It was a power
vested in the House for the purpose of checking the other branches of
government whenever necessary. He claimed that this power was shown in
the making of yearly instead of permanent appropriations for the civil
list and military establishments, yet when the House desired to
strengthen public credit it had rendered the appropriation for those
objects permanent and not yearly. It was, therefore, "contradictory to
suppose that the House was bound to do a certain act at the same time
that they were exercising the discretionary power of voting upon it."
The debate determined nothing, but it is of interest as the first
declaration in Congress of the supremacy of the House of
Representatives.

The great debate which, from the principles involved in it as well as
the argument and oratory with which they were discussed, made this
session of the House famous, was on the treaty with Great Britain. This
was the first foreign treaty made since the establishment of the
Constitution. The treaty was sent in to the House "for the information
of Congress," by the President, on March 1, with notice of its
ratification at London in October. The next day Mr. Edward Livingston
moved that the President be requested to send in a copy of the
instructions to the minister of the United States who negotiated the
treaty, together with the correspondence and other documents. A few days
later he amended his resolution by adding an exception of such of said
papers as any existing negotiations rendered improper to disclose. The
Senate in its ratification of the treaty suspended the operation of the
clause regulating the trade with the West Indies, on which Great Britain
still imposed the old colonial restriction, and recommended the
President to open negotiations on this subject; and in fact such
negotiations were in progress. The discussion was opened on the Federal
side by a request to the gentlemen in favor of the call to give their
reasons. Mr. Gallatin supported the resolution, and expressed surprise
at any objection, considering that the exception of the mover rendered
the resolution of itself unexceptionable. The President had not informed
the House of the reasons upon which the treaty was based. If he did not
think proper to give the information