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Constitutional Law Keyed to Paulsen
Lyon’s Case
Citation:
15 F. Cas. 1183 (1798)Facts
Matthew Lyon, an Irish immigrant who had risen from indentured servitude to become a United States Representative from Vermont, was indicted on October 5, 1798, under the recently enacted Sedition Act. The indictment contained three counts based on two publications. The first involved a letter Lyon wrote from Philadelphia on July 7, 1798, criticizing President Adams’s “continual grasp for power,” “unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish avarice,” and the dismissal of meritorious officials for “independency of sentiment.” The second count involved Lyon’s public readings of a letter from Joel Barlow, a diplomatic figure in France, which criticized the President’s speech as “bullying” and suggested the Senate’s response showed “more servility than ever George III. experienced.” Lyon had published and distributed these materials throughout Vermont, using them for political purposes in his re-election campaign. The prosecution presented evidence that Lyon had read the Barlow letter at multiple public meetings and had caused it to be printed and distributed, though evidence also showed he had sometimes attempted to prevent its printing.
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