In 1801, at the age of 52, Lyon transplanted his family to the Kentucky frontier, founded a mercantile town, and was again elected to Congress.
Lyon had a controversial political stance in the House between 1802 10, suffered financial and political reversals during the war of 1812, and his final years were spent as a U.S. Factor to the Cherokee Nation in Arkansas Territory.
Bitter strains of early English historians rail against them and prove how well Wicklow held it’s own against the Saxons.
The manners, customs, and highly imaginative legends of Lyon’s native county exercised an influence in the formation of his character, which would later come to play in his checkered life.
During , Matthew’s childhood a famine occurred in Ireland, and widespread destitution prevailed among the people.
In Collins’s ,History of Kentucky, where Colonel Lyon passed his latter years, a sketch of his life is given.
The historian refers to his parentage and says : ” His father, while Matthew was a small boy, engaged in a conspiracy against the British Crown, for which he was tried, condemned and executed.
His widow soon married; and Matthew, at the age of nineteen, fled from the cruelty of a step-father to America.”
But Matthew’s age at the time of his emigration is not correctly stated by Mr. Collins.
At thirteen, after leaving school, he was placed in a Dublin printing office, or newspaper office, to learn the trades of printer and book-binder where he worked about 2 yrs.
Others say that Matthew Lyon indentured himself , to help pay off debts for his widowed mother.
Either way , the elder Lyon was put to death , as were so many of his innocent countrymen, a sad motive for the early exile of his son may be found in that tragedy.
During the eighteenth century, confiscation in Ireland usually went hand in hand with the doom of death.
Upon the execution of the father, his family probably was reduced to poverty.
About the middle of the 18th century several insurrections occurred in various parts of Ireland, western and southern districts were almost depopulated, and emigration to America, for the first time had systematically began.
Chronic famine in a land of plenty was the outcome of England’s inhumane policy in Ireland.
Absentee landlords achieved the rest.
Rack-rents and tithes drained the people of their life-blood.
Matthew O’Connor, who lived during the period, and ranks high as a historian, stated, ” No resource, remained to the peasantry but emigration.”
On this wave, Matthew Lyon came at age 15, to seek his fortunes in the New World, on a ship for the British colonies in America.
Lyon was supposed to receive free passage because he worked as a cabin boy during the journey, but was betrayed by the captain, upon his arrival and sold into indentured servitude to pay for his passage.
He worked on a farm in Woodbury, Connecticut, before finally redeemed by the payment of two bulls to a purchaser 2 yrs later, and “by the two bulls that redeemed me” became Lyon’s favorite quote, on all occasions.
Lyon remained in Connecticut, but in 1774 moved to Wallingford, in the New Hampshire Grants, which would later become the state of Vermont.
Lyon’s conduct was vindicated by both Arthur St. Clair and James Wilkinson and subsequently joined Warner’s regiment as a paymaster with the rank of captain.
After leaving Warner’s Regiment following the Battle of Saratoga, Lyon continued his revolutionary activity, serving as a member of Vermont’s Council of Safety, a captain in the militia (later advancing to colonel), paymaster general of the Vermont Militia, deputy secretary to Governor Thomas Chittenden, and later married Chittenden’s daughter along the way.
Lyon moved to Arlington, Vermont and resigned from the army the next year and turned to administrative duties.
He took part in the convention that established the state constitution, served as Assistant Judge of Rutland County and served in the State House of Representatives for many of the years between 1779-96.
Lyon then founded the town of Fair Haven in 1783 and built and several mills for iron casting, paper production, and timber sawing.
When Lyon embarked in politics in Vermont he a printing office to start cranking out the Farmers’ Library, which would later become the Fair Haven Gazette, meant to introduce alternate political opinion into Vermont’s press, which was dominated by Federalist publications from surrounding areas.
It was modeled on the style of the Dublin “Freeman’s Journal.” And afterwards, when a candidate for Congress, he began the publication of a semi-monthly magazine whose name sufficiently denoted its democratic character, ” The Scourge of Aristocracy.”
In 1796, Lyon was successful in winning a seat in Congress, then based in Philadelphia.
Boasting loudly enough for the nearby Connecticut delegation to hear, Lyon said he would be able to foment a revolution of political opinion within six months, if he were to go into the state with a printing press.
Upon hearing this, Federalist congressman Roger Griswold of Connecticut asked Lyon if he would be wearing his wooden sword when he went there.
After Griswold pressed the question, Lyon spat in his face.
The incident was referred to the Committee on Privileges, making Lyon the first congressman to have an ethics complaint lodged against him.
The committee determined that he should be expelled for “a violent attack and gross indecency.” The House debated for two weeks the question of whether Lyon should be allowed to remain in Congress, with one member saying the nation would dissolve into civil war if that were allowed.
The majority favored expulsion in a 52-44 vote, but did not carry enough support to make the two-thirds majority necessary to remove Lyon.
The feud with Griswold was far from over, however.
Seeking to take his own revenge, Griswold entered the House a couple of weeks after the vote and attacked Lyon with a hickory cane as the Vermont representative was seated at his desk.
After sustaining a few blows to the head and face, Lyon managed to escape and get a hold of a set of fire tongs near the House fireplace.
Most accounts say Lyon and Griswold both lost their weapons soon after, grappled for awhile, and then took a breather.
The fight resumed when an ally of Lyon armed him with a hickory stick of his own, and Lyon got in at least one strike against Griswold, as he stood near the a water table.
Friends of Griswold moved to get the congressman his own weapon back, but the fight was finally broken up when the Speaker called for order to be restored.
Newspapers on both sides went berserk.
Anti-Federalists said Griswold refused a duel challenge from Lyon and that it was a sign of Federalist cowardice.
A Federalist paper in Connecticut threatened Lyon with tarring and feathering, if he ever tried to enter the state.
In the House, some exasperated congressmen said that both Lyon and Griswold should be thrown out.
Though the Committee on Privileges supported the recommendation, neither side was very supportive.
Federalists did not want to lose Griswold; Anti-Federalists argued that Lyon was an innocent victim in the brawl, and that it had not disrupted Congress because the House hadn’t been in session at the time (an argument also employed in the first debate over Lyon’s expulsion).
A vote to expel the two members failed.
In the midst of increasing tension between the United States and France in that year, the Sedition Act passed.
The law established penalties for encouraging riots or uprisings, or for forming groups to oppose government measures.
The most controversial aspect, the illegality to publish any false or scandalous works intended to defame the government.
Opponents of the law saw it as a transparent attempt to cut down on opposition pieces criticizing President John Adams or other officials.
In the summer of 1798, Lyon ensured he would meet his prophecy by publishing a letter in Spooner’s Vermont Journal explaining why he rejected the idea of “Presidential infallibility.”
He criticized Adams’ fast day proclamation, saying it used “the sacred name of religion as a state engine to make mankind hate and persecute one another,” and that “every consideration of the public welfare was swallowed up in a continual grasp for power, and unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish avarice.”
The letter also said decent men were turned out of office for independence of thought while yes-men were sheltered.
Lyon also printed a letter from Joel Barlow, an expatriate in France, in response to a speech by Adams on the United States’ relationship with France.
Barlow wondered why the response to Adams’ speech, which declared France’s religion and morality at an end and suggested that the United States remain perpetually armed against the country, had not been “an order to send [Adams] to a madhouse.”
Lyon was indicted in October1798, by a federal circuit court in Vermont, the first person prosecuted under the Sedition Act.
The trial took place the same month in Vergennes, Vermont.
The charges against Lyon were attempt to stir up sedition and bring Adams and the government into contempt; malicious publication of Barlow’s letter.
The prosecutors essentially let the publications stand on their own, but also showed that Lyon had been using the writings at public meetings in Vermont and in his political campaign for re-election to the House in the 1798 election.
Lyon served as his own defense during the trial. He argued that the court did not have jurisdiction in the matter because the Sedition Act was illegal; that the publication was innocent; and that the contents spoke the truth.
On the last contention, he asked the presiding judge, William Patterson, whether he had not “dined with the President, and observed his ridiculous pomp and parade.”
Patterson said he hadn’t, and the dinners were simple affairs.
When Lyon asked him whether the President had more servants and pomp than the tavern at Rutland, Patterson apparently remembered his role as a judge and kept quiet.
Oddly enough, the Chief Justice of Vermont at the time was Israel Smith, who served in Congress for eight years before being unseated by Lyon.
At the trial, Smith appeared as counsel for Lyon in the closing arguments, but declined to make a reply.
Lyon ended up taking the task himself, stressing the unconstitutionality of the Sedition Act.
Patterson told the jury that they weren’t to consider constitutionality and that the Sedition Act was law, until it was declared null and void.
After an hour, the jury returned a guilty verdict.
Patterson told Lyon that he had no business violating the Sedition Act, considering he was a lawmaker and expected to remain within its boundaries.
He considered “the reduced condition of [Lyon’s] estate” a mitigating factor after Lyon claimed that he could only contribute $200 toward a fine because the depression of 1798 had seriously affected him.
Patterson then surprised Lyon by unexpectedly including four months of jail time in the sentence, along with a $1,000 fine and payment of the prosecution costs.
Patterson also warned that Lyon could spend more time in jail, if the difference of the fine was not raised by the time the sentence expired.
Federalist papers rejoiced in the conviction, declaring it a victory over “the unbridled spirit of opposition to the government” and the end of “the vile career of the beast of the mountain.”
Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, an anti-Federalist serving under Adams due to a quirk in the original electoral system, criticized the decision, saying it made federal judges “objects of national fear.”
Friends of Lyon quickly came to his aid, with some upstarts even vowing to break him out of jail.
From his cell window, Lyon encouraged them to show their support at the polls instead; he was still a congressional candidate, after all.
With the help of his son, Lyon began distributing letters from the jail to keep his campaign going, adding some criticism of his condition as well.
In one letter, he complained of being thrown into a cramped and smelly cell usually reserved as a “common receptacle for horse-thieves, money-makers, or other types of felons.”
While still in jail, Lyon prevailed in the 1798 election with almost twice as many votes as his opponent.
One year later, Vermont printer Anthony Haswell was charged with violation of the Sedition Act for accusing the Federalist marshal in charge of Lyon of cruel punishment and saying the government had appointed Tories who opposed independence to government positions.
Haswell was sentenced to two months in jail and a $200 fine.
The remainder of the fine proved to be no issue.
Lyon’s constituents raised money to help pay it off, and Lyon also raffled off his property to raise money.
Another fund was started in Virginia, and included contributions from future Presidents Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe.
More than twice the amount necessary was collected in the course of these fundraising efforts, so Vermont and Virginia supporters each paid half the fine.
Lyon was released from jail in February, in time to make it back to Congress to resume his newly elected term.
He was warned. there might be efforts to prosecute him for sedition, based on the letters he sent from jail, but he claimed immunity from arrest, as a congressmen en route to the capital.
There, he was met with yet another expulsion attempt based on the conviction, as defenders argued that he had been unjustly prosecuted.
The vote broke along party lines, with the 49-45 majority, once again not meeting the necessary two-thirds majority.
A Federalist paper angrily declared, “happy must the nation be where it is but a single step from the dungeon to the Legislature!”
Lyon’s survival in the House may well have affected the course of history.
The contest of note in 1801, was the Presidential race.
When electors tied in their votes for Adams or Jefferson, the matter went to the House.
It once again deadlocked , with eight states in favor of Jefferson, six in favor of Adams, and two states, including Vermont, contested.
Lyon promptly cast Vermont for Jefferson, giving him the majority necessary to become President.
In early March, the terms of Lyon, Adams, and the Sedition Act all came to a close.
Lyon immediately took advantage of the expiration of the law that convicted him, sending a long, critical letter to Adams.
Lyon declared that he was heading west, “where I have fixed for myself an asylum from the persecutions of a party the most base, cruel, assuming, and faithless that ever disgraced the councils of any nation.”
He berated Adams, saying he had not fulfilled promises, “expected a crown,” bullied France and sought to involve the nation in war, and supported unconstitutional laws.
“I hope and pray that your fate may be a warning to all usurpers and tyrants and that you may, before you leave this world, become a true and sincere penitent, and be forgiven all your manifold sins in the next,” Lyon concluded.
Lyon kept his word about moving west, heading to Caldwell County, Kentucky in 1801 and founding the town of Eddyville.
He also started a newspaper and shipyard , and was a member of the state house of representatives, a year after arriving.
Jefferson offered him a commissary-ship in the Western Army, but he declined.
In 1803, he was once again sent to the House and served there for eight years.
He lost the 1810 election over his opposition to going to war with England, which would occur in 1812.
Despite his opposition to war, Lyon nevertheless became involved with gunboat manufacturing to assist in the military efforts, but lost most of his money.
He was appointed a U.S. agent to the Cherokee Nation in the Arkansas Territory, and died of typhoid while taking furs to sell in New Orleans, to use to buy a cotton gin for the Cherokee, unfortunately he caught typhoid and the factory closed in the fall of 1823.