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Making History Happen From Inside The Vergennes Jail: The Tale Of Matthew Lyon

photo provided Strong willed Vermonter who occupied a jail cell and a place in history in Vergennes, Vermont and America.

Tuesday January 26, 2010

By Cookie Steponaitis

     It was by all accounts a solid structure that was built on the corner of Green Street and Main Street in February of 1796. Vergennes resident John Devotion Smith recorded his memories of the jail in 1886, “I have a faint recollection of going into a hall from the Main Street and passing to the other end of the hall through which was an opening in the form of a crescent door.” Vermonter Mathew Lyon wrote of his famed imprisonment in that same room stating, “…his room was cold, uncomfortable and the Marshall refused to let him have a better room.” The room had a story to tell and it takes the reader on a journey back to the administration of Thomas Jefferson and the War of 1812.

    Born in Ireland in 1749, Matthew Lyon came to the shores of America in 1764 as an indentured servant. During the American war for independence he fought along side Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys and was present at the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. Lyon stayed in the area and founded the town of Fair Haven, Vermont in 1783. In addition to earning a great deal of wealth from the manufacturing of paper from wood pulp, Lyon established the town paper, The Fair Haven Gazette and became its editor and chief. Lyon was openly political and vocal in his views and drew considerable attention with his articles and statements after entering politics in 1796. Openly against John Adams and calling the president a “monarch” like the one America fought a war to be rid of; Lyon was the representative from Vermont who did not hesitate to use his abilities to speak out on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Lyon even became embroiled in a shouting match with South Carolina Roger Griswold and was nicknamed the “Spitting Lyon.” In addition to the verbal war, the two men even came to blows with Griswold attempting to cane Lyon and Lyon responding with a fire place poker.

    Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 which were controversial. The Acts, which contained four sections, were designed to limit and control the movement and impact of foreigners on American soil. While the first three parts; The Naturalization Act, which extended the required years for American citizenship from five to fourteen; The Alien and Alien Enemies Acts, which allowed the government to expel from America those individuals deemed subversive or dangerous both during peace or wartime, set the tone, it was the third act that caught Matthew Lyon in a drama spanning the courts, the U.S. Constitution and the jail in Vergennes.

    The last piece of the act called the Sedition Act allowed for fines and jail terms for individuals who openly criticized the U.S. Congress, President or government in print. Matthew Lyon became the first American to be arrested and tried under the new act in October of 1799. He was arrested and jailed in Rutland, Vermont and was found guilty at the conclusion of his trial that October, sentenced to four months in jail and fined $1,069.96. While he was expecting to be housed in the Rutland jail, the U.S. Marshall at the time was living in Vergennes and Lyon was transferred to the jail in Vergennes to serve out his term. While in jail Lyon earned the support and favor of not only Vermonters, but many others in Washington as well. While he was not able to campaign, he was re-elected to his seat in the U.S. Congress while he was still serving out his four months in jail. Many openly supported Lyon and did what they could to speak out in his favor or even offer a stove and other necessities to make his jail cell more appealing. The Rutland Herald of the time, reprinted, shows the great support of Lyon by stating, “Apollos Austin, a resident citizen of Orwell, and a man of great wealth, at his own expense and trouble procured the one thousand dollars in silver dollars, and on February 9, 1799, the day that Mr. Lyon’s confinement expired, Austin with the entire body of Republicans in Orwell, went to Vergennes, in order to overcome the authorities from re-arresting Lyon. Mr. Austin, however, was not permitted to pay the total sum he had brought.”

    Released from his cell in Vergennes, Lyon returned to Washington and provided the tie breaking vote in the election of 1800, in which Thomas Jefferson won over Aaron Burr when the deadlocked Electoral College passed the election off to the House of Representatives for a decision. He went on to serve three more terms as a representative from Kentucky and was brought back into the limelight at the age of 70 in 1820 by President Monroe to serve as the agent of the United States in dealing with the Cherokee Nation Lands. In a final official rebuttal of his 1798 conviction, the U.S. Congress voted in 1840 to erase his conviction from the record books and to return to his heirs the $1,069.96 he had paid in fines.

    Lyon’s famous jail cell and the jail that housed him were demolished in Vergennes in 1937, after the City Council ruled that the building was too great an expense to maintain.  The words, “unsafe and unsanitary” were used by the Town Council because it was being mainly used by “tramps, whose grape-vine communication lines had carried the word that Vergennes was a good place for a night’s shelter any night with fire and blankets and perhaps even a meal.” Based on Lyon’s own description of the building, which called it a “room 16 ft x 12 ft, built for horse thieves, felons and runaway negroes,” it was not intended to provide comforting housing for anyone.

     Researched by local historian and Vergennes Mayor Richard Adams, it appears that some iron work from the cell remained, but that the building itself was demolished and the lot resold. A drawing of the city jail by Mr. Adams, based on a photograph, is on file at the Bixby Library along with articles and information on this building.

    While history records many events occurring in the town of Vergennes and along the banks of the Otter Creek and in Addison County, few remember the tale of the feisty politician who challenged the new established order of events in America and found himself jailed and elected, making history from inside the iron barred cell of the Vergennes jail. The Valley Voice staff encourages its readers to go to your local library and look into the history of your town. You never know what you will learn about the events of a new nation that happened on the very streets we now call our home.

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