Matthew Lyon

Politician

Matthew Lyon was born in Dublin, Leinster, Ireland on July 14th, 1749 and is the Politician. At the age of 73, Matthew Lyon biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.

  Report
Date of Birth
July 14, 1749
Nationality
United States
Place of Birth
Dublin, Leinster, Ireland
Death Date
Aug 1, 1822 (age 73)
Zodiac Sign
Cancer
Profession
Politician
Matthew Lyon Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

At 73 years old, Matthew Lyon physical status not available right now. We will update Matthew Lyon's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Height
Not Available
Weight
Not Available
Hair Color
Not Available
Eye Color
Not Available
Build
Not Available
Measurements
Not Available
Matthew Lyon Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
Not Available
Hobbies
Not Available
Education
Not Available
Matthew Lyon Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
Mary Horsford, Beulah Chittenden
Children
12, including Chittenden
Dating / Affair
Not Available
Parents
Not Available
Matthew Lyon Life

Matthew Lyon, an Irish-born printer, fisherman, and politician who served as a United States Representative from both Vermont and Kentucky, born in 1749. Lyon served Vermont in Congress from 1797 to 1801, and Kentucky from 1803 to 1811.

His time in Congress was turbulent.

He fought with one congressman and was arrested on suspicion of breaching the Sedition Act, winning re-election to Congress from inside his jail cell. Lyon's trial, conviction, and incarceration all increased his profile as a free-speech martyr in the fledgling Democratic-Republican Party.

Personal life

Lyon was married twice before. Mary Horsford, who married in 1772, was his first wife. She was the niece of Ethan Allen's uncle before his death in 1772. She died in 1782. Beulah M. Chittenden, the daughter of Thomas Chittenden, was Lyon's second marriage.

James (1776-1824) was a newspaper editor and publisher in Vermont and several southern states, and he worked with both his father and James Thomson Callender. Chittenden Lyon (1787–1842) of Lyon was a member of the United States House of Representatives (1827–1835) from Kentucky. Matthew (1792–1839), his uncle, was the father of Confederate General Hylan B. Lyon of Lyon County, Kentucky.

Anne and Pamelia's children married John Messinger and George Cadwell, respectively, Illinois pioneers and politicians.

Lyon was also the great-grandfather of William Peters Hepburn, who represented Iowa in Congress. Sherrill Milnes, an American operatic baritone, is one of Lyon's descendants.

Lyon was included in the list of over 1,700 men who served in the United States Congress who owned slaves, according to Washington Post's analysis in 2022.

Source

Matthew Lyon Career

Early life and military career

Lyon went to school in Dublin after being born in County Wicklow, Ireland. According to some reports, his father was executed for treason against the British government of Ireland, and Lyon served as a teenager to help his widowed mother. In 1763, he began to learn the printer and bookbinder trades, but in 1764, he migrated to Connecticut as a remissioner. He worked with Jabez Bacon, a woodbury farmer and merchant, to pay his debt. Hugh Hannah of Litchfield, a merchant and farmer, inherited the debt as a child and a student, Lyon continued his education by self-study as he was able. Lyon became a free man in 1768 after working for wages as he was allowed.

Lyon became acquainted with many people who became Vermont's first white settlers while living in Connecticut. Lyon moved to Wallingford, Vermont, where he farmed and established a company of militia. He was an adjutant in Colonel Seth Warner's regiment in Canada in 1775, and in July 1776, he was granted a second lieutenant in the Green Mountain Boys' regiment. In 1777, he moved to Arlington, Vermont, where he was born.

Lyon was first served under Horatio Gates in upstate New York and Vermont during the Revolutionary War. He was branded cowardice and ordered to wear a wooden sword to show his shame in a version of the celebration that was later released by his political adversaries. In Lyon's version, he and his men were sent to watch wheat grow in the fields near Jericho, Vermont; unhappy at not being put to good use, he urged Gates' command and join the regiment led by Seth Warner. Both Arthur St. Clair and James Wilkinson defended Lyon's behaviour.

Lyon joined Warner's regiment as a paymaster with the rank of captain and served during the Battle of Bennington and other operations. Lyon, who resigned from Warner's Regiment after the Battle of Saratoga, continued his revolutionary service as a member of Vermont's Council of Safety, a lieutender in the militia (later advancing to colonel), assistant to Vermont's treasurer, and deputy treasurer.

Political career in Vermont

Lyon served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1779 to 1783. Fair Haven, Vermont, was founded in 1783 by a man who went back to the state House of Representatives from 1783 to 1796 as a member.

In addition to an iron foundry, Lyon also built and operated several kinds of mills in Fair Haven, including a gristmill, sawmill, and paper mill. He founded the Farmers' Library newspaper in 1793, although his son James was the nominal owner, Matthew Lyon oversaw the newspaper's direction and provided much of the newspaper's material. The paper was later renamed to the Fair Haven Gazette, and it was not published until Lyon sold its newspapers. Lyon sold the printing press and other accessories for the Gazette in 1794 to Reverend Samuel Williams and Judge Samuel Williams of Rutland, who used it to create the Rutland Herald.

Lyon was a poor candidate for the Second and Third Congresses. He unsuccessfully opposed Israel Smith's appointment to the Fourth Congress. Lyon was elected a member of the Fifth and Sixth Congresses on March 4, 1797 – March 3, 1801); he was not a candidate for renomination in 1800.

Lyon was one of the first two people investigated for suspected of "gross indecency" for spitting in Roger Griswold's face; Griswold was charged with revenge for attacking Lyon in retaliation.

The House was considering removing William Blount of Tennessee from office on January 30, 1798. Griswold was attempting to pique Lyon's attention in order to have a dialogue on the issue, but Lyon dismissed him on purpose, since they were opposed to opposing political parties (Lyon was a Democratic-Republican and Griswold a Federalist). Griswold lost his temper and insulted Lyon by calling him a scoundrel, which at the time was considered profanity. Lyon's struggle escalated when the common man declared himself willing to fight for the common cause. Griswold mocked Lyon's reported expulsion from Gates' service during the Revolution, implying that he would use his wooden sword. Lyon spit tobacco juice on Griswold, earning him the nickname "The Spitting Lyon" in honor.

Lyon later apologized to the House as a whole, saying he had no idea it was in session when he confronted Griswold and meant no disrespect to the body or disrespect; he also gave a written letter of apology. On February 15, 1798, Griswold retaliated by striking Lyon with a wooden cane, beating him about the head and shoulders in front of other lawmakers on the House floor. Lyon retreated to a fire pit and defended himself with the tongs until other congressmen broke up the conflict, with some of them pulling Griswold by his legs to convince him not to leave Lyon. Despite the fact that the commission that supervised censured both Lyon and Griswold, the House as a whole opposed the motion. The problem was settled after Lyon and Griswold told the House that they would maintain the peace and continue to do good conduct.

Lyon also has the distinction of being the only one to be elected to Congress while in jail. On October 10, 1798, he was found guilty of violating the Alien and Sedition Acts, which barred malicious writing about the American government as a whole, or the president's houses. Lyon was the first person to be charged with breaking the rules after publishing editorials criticizing Federalist President John Adams during the Quasi War with France.

When the Rutland Herald refused to publish Lyon's articles, he had started The Scourge Of Aristocracy and Repository of Vital Political Information. Lyon published an editorial on October 1 containing allegations that Adams had a "unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, stupid adulation, and selfish avarice," as well as allegations that Adams had corrupted the Christian faith to advance his war-related causes. Lyon had already written a letter to Alden Spooner, the Vermont Journal's editor, before the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed. Lyon referred to criticism in the Journal in this letter, calling the president "bullying" and the Senate's reactions "stupid."

When the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed, the Federalists pressed for this letter to be published in the Vermont Journal, which Spooner did, adding to the charges against Lyon. One other charge was that of publishing letters written by poet Joel Barlow, which Lyon had read at political rallies. These were also published prior to the Acts. Lyon's defense was supposed to be the unconstitutionality of the Acts, as Jeffersonians saw them as in breach of the First Amendment to the Constitution. In Lyon's particular case, the aforementioned letter from Alden Spooner, as well as that of Barlow, meant that Lyon felt entitled to bring up the Constitution's safeguards against ex post facto laws. This defense was not allowed.

In Vergennes, Lyon was sentenced to four months in a 16 ft jail cell used for felons, counterfeiters, robbers, and ranaway slaves; judge William Paterson chastised for the inability to give a harsher punishment. The Green Mountain Boys also threatened to murder the prison, but may have done so if not for Lyon's peaceful resistance. Lyon gained the Sixth Congress by nearly doubled the votes of his closest rivaly, 4,576 to 2,444. Lyon yelled out to a crowd of supporters: "I am on my way to Philadelphia!" he announced.

In 1840, the Senate passed a bill authorizing a refund of the fine Lyon incurred under the Alien and Sedition Acts and other expenses incurred as a result of his detention, as well as his interest.

Because of a tense electoral vote between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, who were supposed to be the Democratic presidential and vice president respectively in 1800, the vote went to the House of Representatives was decided on by 1800. Many Federalists agreed that Burr was preferable to Jefferson over Jefferson.

Members of the House of Representatives voted by state, with a majority needed for a state's election to be awarded, and a majority of nine states required to win. Jefferson won eight states and Burr six, with two states counting as "no result" because of a tie among their House representatives during the first 35 votes. Vermont was one of two "no result" states in Lewis Morris' vote for Burr and Lyon cast his ballot for Jefferson. Multiple Federalists vowed to defy the deadlock on the 36th ballot by either casting blank ballots or absenting themselves from the House chamber during the campaign. Morris was one of the Federalists to vote; Lyon's vote for Jefferson changed Vermont into his column as a result of Morris's decision not to be absent. Vermont was one of two states to vote in Jefferson from "no result" to Jefferson, and he won ten states on the final ballot; Lyon was instrumental in Jefferson's victory.

Later career

Lyon immigrated to Kentucky by 1801, settling in Eddyville, Kentucky, later Caldwell County, and now Lyon County). He started a paper mill propelled by oxen and a distillery and later began to work on boat building. In 1810, Lyon owned ten slaves.

For the War of 1812, the Department of War sent him to build gunboats. Lyon had ample amounts of wood and other equipment when the war came; the government later failed to honor its commitment, and Lyon became bankrupt. He worked tirelessly to restore his finances by 1818, and he was back in normal circumstances.

He became a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1802 and was elected to the 8th United States Congress and the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1803 – March 3, 1811). In 1810, he attempted reelection to the 12th Congress, but was unsuccessful.

Lyon started repaying his debts and rebuilding financially, but was unable to find compensation for his war of 1812 service, but it was not until he got them. President James Monroe, a mentor and political promoter of Lyon's Lyon's, appointed him as a United States factor to the Cherokee Nation in the Arkansas Territory in 1820. He attempted to run in Washington, D.C., against incumbent James Woodson Bates for the Arkansas Territory's delegate position in congress. He barely won the election to represent in the 17th Congress (1,081 to 1,020), and then unsuccessfully challenged the outcome. Lyon wrote to the House that the territory and other authorities refused to allow him to inspect ballots and returns, or to have a hearing where witnesses could be called. Lyon was unable to obtain evidence to back up his claim to the seat as a result. He ruled out his fight, but Bates continued to serve.

Source