Matthew Lyon

Matthew Lyon 1750-1822, American political leader and pioneer, b. Co. Wicklow, Ireland. He emigrated to America in 1765, settling eventually in Vermont. During the American Revolution he served with Ethan Allen. After the war he moved (1783) to the town of Fair Haven, Vt., and, active in various business ventures, became its leading citizen. From 1797 to 1801 he was a vociferous Anti-Federalist member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1798 he was convicted under the Sedition Act for the publication in the Vermont Journal of a letter criticizing President John Adams. While serving a short jail sentence, he was reelected to Congress. Moving to Eddyville, Ky., in 1801, he represented (1803-11) that state in Congress. Lyon was appointed (1820) U.S. agent to the Cherokee in Arkansas, where he was elected the second delegate of that territory to Congress, but died before taking his seat. He was a hero of three successive frontiers, an able exponent of frontier views in Congress, and a man of shrewd business ability.

Bibliography: See biography by R. P. Williams (1972).

Lyon, Matthew (1749–1822) Continental army officer, born in Wicklow County, Ireland. Lyon was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged after acquiescing to the demands of his mutinous troops that they abandon their posts because of the threat of Indian attack along the boundary they were guarding. Lyon was later taken on as a scout and guide, however, and was eventually made captain and paymaster of a regiment. He also served as a volunteer during the battle of Saratoga (1778). Lyon, who had come to America as an indentured servant, earlier fought with the Green Mountain Boys in their struggle to prevent New York from taking over the land between it and New Hampshire, and played an important role in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga (1775). He served two terms in Congress as a representative from Vermont (1797–1801) and several more terms later as a representative from Kentucky (1803–11). In the presidential election of 1800 that resulted in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, throwing the vote into the House, Lyon cast the deciding ballot for Jefferson.

Lyon was elected to his second term in the House (1798) while serving time in jail. He had been found guilty under the Sedition Act of 1798 of maligning the government for charging that the Federalists were pro-British. He was fined $1,000 and jailed for four months. In 1840 Congress voted to remit Lyon's fine to his heirs on the grounds that the Sedition Act was unconstitutional.