Congressional pugilists

Creator
Unknown

Context
This etching, created in Philadelphia in 1798, is a crude portrayal of a fight on the floor of Congress between Representatives Matthew Lyon of Vermont and Roger Griswold of Connecticut.

Audience
Philadelphians

Purpose
To relay the incidents of violence from the congressional floor

Historical Significance
Congressman Matthew Lyon was charged with violating the Alien and Sedition Acts, which prohibited malicious writing about the American government. He was found guilty of criticizing Federalist Party President John Adams and disagreeing with Adams’s decision to go to war against France.

Lyon was sentenced to four months in jail, and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs.

"He in a trice struck Lyon thrice / Upon his head, enrag'd sir, / Who seiz'd the tongs to ease his wrongs, / And Griswold thus engag'd, sir."

Unknown, CONGRESSIONAL PUGILISTS (1798). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.