Matthew Lyon, "the Hampden of Congress," was born in County Wicklow,
Ireland, July 14, 1750. He emigrated to America when he was fifteen
years old, and settled in Woodbury, Connecticut, as an apprentice of
Jabez Bacon, the wealthiest merchant in all New England. Lyon left
Connecticut, in 1774, and removed to Vermont, where he became one of the
famous Green Mountain Boys of the Revolution. He was a member of the
Vermont legislature for four years; and in 1783 he founded the town of
Fair Haven, Vermont. Lyon became one of the great men of Vermont, a
disciple of Thomas Jefferson, "the pioneer Democrat of New England." In
1796 he was elected to Congress and he went to Philadelphia in May,
1797, to enter upon his duties. He at once became one of the powerful
men in that body. Lyon had published a newspaper at Fair Haven for
several years, besides issuing a number of books from his press, but
during the years of 1798 and 1799 he edited the now famous _Scourge of
Aristocracy_, a semi-monthly magazine. At the present day this is a rare
volume, and much to be desired. In 1801 Lyon cast Vermont's vote for
Thomas Jefferson against Aaron Burr for the presidency, and this vote is
said to have made certain Jefferson's election. Late in this year of
1801 Lyon left Vermont for Kentucky, and he later became the founder of
Eddyville, Lyon county, Kentucky. The county, however, was named in
honor of his son, Chittenden Lyon. In 1802 Matthew Lyon was a member of
the Kentucky legislature; and from 1803 to 1811 he was in the lower
House of Congress from his Kentucky district. His opposition to the War
of 1812 retired him to private life. At Eddyville he was engaged in
shipbuilding, in which he had great success, but after his defeat for
reëlection to Congress, in 1812, disasters came fast upon him, and he
was reduced from affluence to comparative poverty. At the age of
sixty-eight years, however, he recovered himself, paid all his debts,
and died in easy circumstances. In 1820 Lyon was appointed United States
Factor to the Cherokee Indians of Arkansas territory, and he set out for
his future home at Spadra Bluff, Arkansas. He was later elected as
Arkansas's second delegate to Congress, but he did not live to take his
seat, dying at Spadra Bluff, August 1, 1822. Eleven years later his
remains were returned to Kentucky, and re-interred at Eddyville, where a
proper monument marks the spot to-day. Matthew Lyon's reply to John
Randolph of Roanoke, in 1804, in regard to the old question of the Yazoo
frauds, is his only extant speech that is at all remembered at the
present time.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins
(Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Matthew Lyon_, by J. F. McLaughlin
(New York, 1900).