CHAPTER sustained by a vote of forty-six to thirty-four. This case, XII. it will be seen, had a very direct bearing on the question 1798. a short time since (1850) so violently agitated, of the

erection of the Territory of New Mexico, notwithstanding the claims of Texas; yet so inaccessibly wrapped up in records, pamphlets, and newspapers has the history of this period hitherto been, that this case, so exactly in point, was never referred to in that whole discussion.

Much of the earlier part of the session was devoted to the consideration of private matters, mostly Revolutionary claims, which had come by degrees to constitute a formidable part of the business of the House. An act was passed authorizing grants of land to the refugees from Canada and Nova Scotia who had joined and adhered to the American cause during the Revolution. At a former session, in spite of a violent opposition, based on the alleged want of power in Congress for that purpose, a sum of money had been granted to the daughters of the Count de Grasse, reduced to poverty by the death of their father, who had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror. That sum had been exhausted, and a new act was now passed, in further acknowledgment of De Grasse's Revolutionary services, granting to his four daughters an annual pension for the next five years of $400 each. Numbers of banished Frenchmen continued to arrive in America, among whom, at this time, were the young Duke of Orleans, afterward Louis Philippe, king of the French, and his two younger brothers. The joy was great in America at hearing of the release of Lafayette from the Austrian dungeon in which he had so long been confined. By way of pecuniary relief to his family, Congress had already appropriated to their use the full amount of his pay as a major general in the American service..

XII.

The bill making provision for foreign intercourse be- CHAPTER came a sort of party test, and many speeches were made upon it.

The opposition maintained that the regulation 1798. of this matter ought to be with Congress and not with the president, and instead of voting a gross sum as heretofore, they wished to limit the number of missions, and to make a specific appropriation for each. Much time was consumed in the business of Senator Blount's impeachment, which was protracted through the whole session without being brought to any point. Every obstacle was placed in the way of it by the opposition, who were not a little alarmed at the idea of the impeachment of members of Congress, for which, as they alleged, the Constitution gave no authority.

During the balloting for managers of this impeachment, a scandalous breach of decorum occurred, the first Jan. 30. ever witnessed in Congress. The speaker, having left the chair, had taken a seat next the bar; Griswold and others were seated near; many members, as is usual on such occasions, being out of their proper seats. Standing outside the bar, and leaning upon it, Lyon commenced a conversation with the speaker in a loud tone, as if he desired to attract the attention of those about him, with respect to the Connecticut members, and particularly in reference to the Foreign Intercourse Bill, which just before had been under discussion. Those members, he said, acted in opposition to the opinions and wishes of nine tenths of their constituents. As to their allegation in support of salaries of $9000 to the ministers abroad, that nobody would accept for less-that was false. They were all of them ready to accept any office, were the salary great or small. He knew the people of Connecticut, and that they were capable of hearing reason, having had occasion to fight them sometimes in his

CHAPTER OWN district when they came to visit their relations. XII. "Did you fight them with your wooden sword?" asked 1798. Griswold, in jocular allusion to Lyon's having been cashiered, and to a story which had got into the newspapers since his display of himself at the previous session, that he had been drummed out of the army on that occasion, and compelled to wear a wooden sword. Some other jocular remarks, made by the by-standers, had been received by Lyon in good part; Griswold's taunt either failed to reach his ear, or he affected not to hear it, for, without noticing it in the least, he went on in the same strain as before, declaring that, blinded and deceived as the people of Connecticut were, if he could only go into the state and manage a paper there for six months, he could open their eyes and turn out all the present representatives. Griswold, meanwhile leaving the seat he had occupied, had taken a place beside Lyon, outside the bar. In reply to this last sally, laying his hand on Lyon's arm as if to attract his attention, he remarked, with a smile, "You could not change the opinion of the meanest hostler in the state!" Lyon replied that he knew better; that he could effect a revolution in a few months, and that he had serious thoughts of moving into the state and fighting them on their own ground. "If you go, Mr. Lyon, I suppose you will wear your wooden sword!" so Griswold retorted, at which Lyon turned suddenly about and spat in his face. Griswold drew back as if to strike a blow, but, upon the interference of one or two of his friends, restrained himself and remained quiet. The speaker instantly resumed the chair, and, after a short statement of the foregoing facts, Sewall submitted a motion for Lyon's expulsion. This was referred to a committee of privileges, another resolution being meanwhile adopted, that if either party offered any

violence to the other before a final decision, he should be CHAPTER held guilty of a high breach of privilege.

XII.

Lyon the next day sent a letter to the speaker, in 1798. which he stated, that if he were chargeable with a disre- Feb. 1. gard of the rules of the House, it had grown wholly out of his ignorance of their extent, and that, if he had been mistaken on that point, he was sorry to deserve censure. This letter was also referred to the Committee of Privileges, who reported, the day after, a statement of Feb. 2. facts, and along with it a resolution for Lyon's expul sion. To the passage of this resolution Lyon's Democratic friends made a most obstinate resistance. It was only by forty-nine votes to forty-four that the House consented to go into committee on the subject; and not con- Feb. 5. tent with the statement reported, it was insisted that the witnesses should again give their testimony before the Committee of the Whole. Lyon put in for the consideration of that committee another long statement, in which he threw upon the other officers, particularly the one in command, the blame of the desertion of the post for which he had been cashiered. He repeated the same thing in a speech against the resolution; but in defending his conduct he made use of a very vulgar and indecent expression, which itself, on Harper's motion, and by the casting vote of the speaker, was referred to the same Committee of the Whole as a new and separate offense. Among the witnesses who had given testimony as to the fact of Lyon's having been cashiered, and his patience at home under allusions to it, was Chipman, the new Vermont senator. By way of rebuttal, Lyon stated in his speech that he had once chastised Chipman for an insult; a statement which drew out from Chipman, in a letter addressed to the House, a full account of the affair referred to, placing Lyon in a most ridiculous light.

XII.

CHAPTER The adoption of the resolution for expelling Lyon was vehemently opposed by Nicholas and Gallatin on the 1798. frivolous and unfounded pretense which Lyon himself had set up in excuse, that the session of the House was suspended at the time, and that expulsion, therefore, would be too severe a punishment. Though a good deal ashamed of Lyon's conduct, the opposition, in the close division of parties, were very unwilling to suffer even the temporary loss of a single vote. An attempt was made to substitute a reprimand for expulsion; but this motion Feb. 12. was lost, forty-four to fifty-two, the same number of

votes presently given for the original resolution. But as a two thirds vote was necessary to expel, this resolution, though sustained by a majority, was lost.

To this very discreditable decision, and to the precedent thus established, may in a great measure be ascribed those personal affrays on the floor of the House by which that body has from time to time been disgraced. Indeed this action, or rather non-action, very speedily produced its natural fruits. As the House refused to avenge him or itself, Griswold took the matter into his own hands. For two or three days after the decision, Lyon kept out of the way. The first time that he made Feb. 15. his appearance in the hall, prayers having been read, and

many of the members being in their seats, but the House not yet called to order, Griswold walked up to him as he was reading in his seat, and commenced beating him over the head with a cane. Lyon also had a cane, but, in his confusion, instead of seizing it, he attempted to close with Griswold, who retired slowly before him, keeping him at arms' length, and still beating him. When, at length, they had cleared the seats, Lyon rushed to the fire-place and seized a pair of tongs, with which he approached Griswold, who now struck him a blow in the