A like disproportion between the vastness of results and the minuteness of verbal distinction is exhibited in this decision by the House.

The change of "report" into "prepare" threw up a ridge in the field of constitutional development that has affected the trend of American politics ever since.
This is the explanation of a problem of comparative politics that has often excited much wondering notice: why it is that alone among modern representative assemblies the American House of Representatives tends to decline in prestige and authority.

The original expectation was that the House of Representatives would take a dominant position like that of the House of Commons, but its degradation began so soon that Fisher Ames noted it as early as 1797.

Writing to Hamilton he observed: "The heads of departments are chief clerks.

Instead of being the ministry, the organs of the executive power, and imparting a kind of momentum to the operation of the laws, they are precluded even from communicating with the House by reports....