HIST101 APU Debate American Revolution Discussion – Description
The Federalist actually had a congressman imprisoned under the statute. Matthew Lyon was an Irishman who had migrated to America decades earlier as an indentured servant. He was a virtual slave for a number of years, and that experience informed his view of privilege for the rest of his life. Lyon grasped the opportunity that America offered and became rich, yet was determined that the wealthy would not steal away those same opportunities for other men.1 He viewed the Federalists as elitists and spoke out against them from his perch in Congress. When he was insulted by a Federalist Congressman on the floor of the House Lyon retaliated by spitting in his political enemy’s eye. A few days later, the Federalist, Roger Griswold, carried a cane into the Congressional chamber where he proceeded to attack Lyon. Lyon seized a pair of fire tongs and the two had at it.2 Lyon got the better of the altercation (there are conflicting accounts of who “won” the fight. Regardless, Lyon acquited himself well in the scuffle. A few months later Lyon was at it again, twisting the tiger’s tail by reading aloud from a letter from Europe expressing less than glowing accounts of President Adams. The Federalists had him. They arrested him four days after the reading, tried him quickly and sentenced him to four months in jail.3 Thus making Lyon a martyr for Freedom of Speech.1Terri Diane Halperin, The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016) Kindle Locations 14912 John C. Miller, The Federalist Era, (New York, Harper & Rowe, 1960 ) 208.3Stanley Elkins, and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism : The Early American Republic, 1788-1800 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1994) Kindle Location 17153
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