Political Battles

Resource 2: Political Battles

n 1796, John Adams spitting tobacco juice at Griswold . ran for president against Then, Griswold hit Lyon with a Thomas Jefferson . Adams cane, and Lyon picked up fireplace was a Federalist, a believer tongs to strike back . Shortly after Iin a strong central government . the fight, this satirical cartoon Jefferson saw Federalists as appeared across the country, aristocratic, power-hungry capturing the fight and ridiculing Northerners . Adams won by congressmen as foolish bystanders . a slim margin, and Jefferson, the runner-up, became vice The Lyon-Griswold fight was president . But the two men could not caused simply by differences barely stand each other, and of opinion, or group rivalry . Jefferson escaped the city often It was part of a larger pattern for his beloved Virginia estate, of masculine violence in the Monticello . James Madison, once new government . The country a Federalist himself, but now allied was so new and untested that a with Jefferson, lived nearby . The man’s reputation and character two formed a strong bond, spent were his main qualifications hours talking politics, and gave for office . An attack on his Congressional Pugilists, 1798 . Etching on wove paper . New-York Historical Society Library, PR 10 . a name to their anti-Federalist politics and his ideas was an position . They called themselves attack on his honor, so deep Discussion Questions Democratic-Republicans, and personal that it generated ✮✮ What does this cartoon reveal about the state of politics in 1798? How or simply Republicans . aggressive responses like spitting, does it compare with the behavior in Congress today? insults, caning, even duels . Political arguments had simmered ✮✮ How does the artist feel about the congressmen portrayed in this piece? when the revered George Later in the year, Matthew How do you know? Washington was president, but Lyon wrote and published a letter ✮ with Adams in office, they boiled critical of President Adams . He ✮ What is the problem with having a government marked by bitter rivalries over . During a debate on February was tried and jailed under the and fighting? 15, 1798, in the House of new Alien and Sedition Acts, Representatives, Roger Griswold, a which the Adams administration Yale-educated Federalist, insulted used to punish those who spoke Mathew Lyon, an Irish-born out against the government . Sources: “Matthew Lyon (1749–1822),” Federal Judicial Center, http://www .fjc .gov/history/home .nsf/page/ tu_sedbio_lyon .html (accessed by M . Waters, 9-7-2016); “Representative Roger Griswold of Connecticut Republican . Lyon responded by Attacked Matthew Lyon of Vermont on the House Floor,” History, Art & Archives: United States House of Representatives, http://history .house .gov/Historical-Highlights/1700s/Representative-Roger-Griswold-of- Connecticut-attacked-Matthew-Lyon-of-Vermont-on-the-House-Floor/ (accessed by M . Waters, 9-20-2016); “Roger Griswold (1762–1812),” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, http://bioguide .congress .

Saving Washington: The New Republic and Early Reformers, 1790–1860