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.