Rep. Matthew Lyon

Former Representative for Kentucky’s 1^st District

Lyon was the representative for Kentucky’s 1^st congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1807 to 1811.

He was previously the representative for Kentucky’s 1^st congressional district as a Republican from 1805 to 1807; the representative for Kentucky’s 1^st congressional district as a Republican from 1803 to 1805; the representative for Vermont’s 1^st congressional district as a Republican from 1799 to 1801; and the representative for Vermont’s 1^st congressional district as a Republican from 1797 to 1799.

Bioguide

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Misconduct

Lyon faced an allegation of violating Sedition Act on October 9, 1798 by accusing President John Adams of having a taste for excessive pomp, for which he was convicted and fined and served four months in prison while a member of the House. On Feb. 22, 1799, the House of Representatives failed to expel him, 49-45. In 1799, he was re-elected after conviction and while still in jail.

Feb. 22, 1799	House of Representatives failed to expel, 49-45
1799	Re-elected after conviction and while still in jail.

Legislators who enslaved Black people

Lyon was among more than 1,800 legislators who enslaved Black people. The Washington Post compiled the first database of slaveholding members of Congress by examining thousands of pages of census records and historical documents. Lyon was one of them.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jun 1797 to Mar 1811, Lyon missed 391 of 1,069 roll call votes, which is 36.6%. This is much worse than the median of 19.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Mar 1811. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1797 Jun-Jul	34	0	0.0%	0^th
Nov 1797-Feb 1798	19	9	47.4%	90^th
1798 Mar-Jun	42	2	4.8%	25^th
1798 Jul-Jul	16	1	6.2%	45^th
Dec 1798-Mar 1799	44	33	75.0%	90^th
Dec 1799-May 1800	54	8	14.8%	74^th
Nov 1800-Mar 1801	42	14	33.3%	91^st
Oct 1803-Mar 1804	97	18	18.6%	58^th
Nov 1804-Mar 1805	35	14	40.0%	90^th
Dec 1805-Apr 1806	103	26	25.2%	59^th
Dec 1806-Mar 1807	55	28	50.9%	89^th
1807 Oct-Dec	35	11	31.4%	90^th
1808 Jan-Mar	49	16	32.7%	81^st
1808 Apr-Apr	35	10	28.6%	61^st
Nov 1808-Mar 1809	116	40	34.5%	80^th
1809 May-Jun	36	10	27.8%	70^th
Dec 1809-Jan 1810	29	20	69.0%	96^th
1810 Feb-Apr	121	54	44.6%	85^th
1810 May-May	3	0	0.0%	0^th
Dec 1810-Mar 1811	104	77	74.0%	93^rd

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000