Matthew Lyon - Sedition

Sedition

Lyon had launched his own newspaper, The Scourge Of Aristocracy and Repository of Important Political Truth, when the Rutland Herald refused to publish his perceived radical work. On October 1, Lyon printed this paper speaking of the "unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish avarice," as well as Adams' corruption of religion to further his war aims. At the time it was quite common for Federalists to cite religious reasons for going to war against France; as well as for silencing the opposition. Lyon had also, before the Alien and Sedition Acts had been passed, written a letter to one Alden Spooner, the publisher of the Vermont Journal. In this letter, which was written in response to perceived personal attacks from the Journal, Lyon called the president "bullying," and the Senate's responses "stupid." Once the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed, the Federalists pushed for this letter to be printed in the Vermont Journal, adding charges to Lyon by subterfuge. One other charge included publishing letters written by the poet Joel Barlow, which Lyon had read at political rallies. These also were published prior to the Acts. Lyon's defense was to be the unconstitutionality of the Acts, as Jeffersonians saw these Acts as violating the First Amendment to the Constitution. In Lyon's particular case, there was the aforementioned letter to Alden Spooner as well as that of Barlow, which meant Lyon felt entitled to bring up the Constitution's safeguards against ex post facto laws. This defense was not allowed.

Lyon was sentenced to four months in a Vergennes jail cell of dimensions 16' x 12' used for felons, counterfeiters, thieves, and runaway slaves, and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs, while Judge Paterson lamented being unable to give a harsher punishment. A bit of a resistance movement was created; the Green Mountain Boys even threatened to destroy the jail and might have done so if not for Lyon urging peaceful resistance. While in jail, Lyon won election to the Sixth Congress by nearly doubling the votes of his closest adversary, 4,576 to 2,444. Upon his release, Lyon exclaimed "I am on my way to Philadelphia!" In the election of 1800 Matthew Lyon cast the deciding vote for Jefferson after the election went to the House of Representatives because of an electoral tie. Lyon's trial, conviction, and incarceration boosted his status among the fledgling American Republican political elite as something of a free-speech martyr.