Page "Jay Treaty" Paragraph 21

James Madison, then a member of the House of Representatives, argued that the treaty could not, under Constitutional law, take effect without approval of the House, since it regulated commerce and exercised legislative powers granted to Congress.

The debate which followed was an early example of originalism, in which Madison, the " Father of the Constitution ," lost.

After defeat on the treaty in Congress, the Jeffersonian Republicans lost the 1796 presidential election on the issue.