Matthew Lyon (
July 14, 1749 -
August 1, 1822), (father of
Chittenden Lyon and great-grandfather of
William Peters Hepburn), was a printer,
farmer, soldier, and
politician, serving as a
United States Representative from
Vermont and from
Kentucky.
Lyon was born near
Dublin, in near by
County Wicklow, Ireland, and attended school in Dublin. He began to learn the trade of printer in 1763 and immigrated to what would become the
United States in
1765. Lyon was landed as a redemptioner and worked on a farm in
Woodbury, Connecticut, where he continued his education.
Lyon moved to
Wallingford, Vermont (then known as the
New Hampshire Grants), in
1774 and organized a company of
militia. He served as adjutant in Colonel
Seth Warner's regiment in
Canada in
1775, and was then commissioned as a
Second Lieutenant in the regiment known as the
Green Mountain Boys in July
1776. He moved to
Arlington, Vermont, in
1777.
Lyon resigned from the Army in
1778, and became a member of the
Vermont House of Representatives from
1779-1783. He founded the town of
Fair Haven, Vermont, in
1783, and returned to the state House of Representatives for ten years during the period
1783-1796. He built and operated various kinds of mills, including one for the manufacture of
paper, established a printing office in
1793 and published the
Farmers' Library, afterward the
Fair Haven Gazette. Lyon was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Second and Third Congresses, and unsuccessfully contested the election of
Israel Smith to the Fourth Congress. He was elected as a
Democratic-Republican to the Fifth and Sixth Congresses (
March 4, 1797-March 3, 1801); he was not a candidate for renomination in
1800. Lyon had the distinction of being the first member to have an ethics violation charge filed against him when he was accused of "gross indecency" for spitting on
Roger Griswold of
Connecticut after an exchange of insults on
January 30, 1798; although the
Ethics Committee recommended censure, the House as a whole rejected the motion to censure him.
Lyon also has the distinction of being the only person to be elected to Congress while in jail. In
1798, Lyon was found guilty of violating the
Alien and Sedition Acts, which prohibited malicious writing of the American government or its officials. Lyon was the first person to be put to trial for violating the acts on charges of criticizing
Federalist president
John Adams and disagreeing with Adams' decision to go to war against
France. Lyon was sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs. While in jail, Lyon won election to the Sixth Congress. Lyon would get his revenge on Adams after the election of
1800 ended in an electoral tie. Matthew Lyon cast the deciding vote for Jefferson.
Lyon moved to
Kentucky in
1801 and settled in
Caldwell County (now
Lyon County). He became a member of the
Kentucky House of Representatives in
1802 and was elected to the Eighth and to the three succeeding Congresses (
March 4, 1803-March 3, 1811). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in
1810 to the Twelfth Congress.
Lyon was appointed United States factor to the
Cherokee Nation in
Arkansas Territory in
1820; and again attempted to serve in
Washington, DC when he unsuccessfully contested the election of
James W. Bates as a Delegate from Arkansas Territory to the Seventeenth Congress. Lyon died in
Spadra Bluff, Arkansas, August 1, 1822; interment in Spadra Bluff Cemetery; reinterment in Eddyville Cemetery, Eddyville, Caldwell (now Lyon) County, Ky., in
1833.
Bibliography
*DAB; Austin, Aleine. Matthew Lyon: "New Man" of the Democratic Revolution, 1749-1822. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1981; Montagno, George L. "Matthew Lyon, Radical Jeffersonian, 1796-1801: A Case Study in Partisan Politics." Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1954.
