A crude portrayal of a fight on the floor of Congress between Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold of Connecticut. The row was originally prompted by an insulting reference to Lyon on Griswold's part. The interior of Congress Hall is shown, with the Speaker Jonathan Dayton and Clerk Jonathan W. Condy (both seated), Chaplain Ashbel Green (in profile on the left), and several others looking on, as Griswold, armed with a cane, kicks Lyon, who grasps the former's arm and raises a pair of fireplace tongs to strike him. Below are the verses: "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."
Description:
Title etched above image., Below image in lower right corner: Congress Hall, in Philada., Feb. 15, 1798, S.E. Cor. 6th & Chestnut St., Four lines of verse in two columns below image in center: He in a trice struck Lyon thrice, upon his head, enrag'd sir, who seized the tongs to ease his wrongs, and Griswold thus engag'd, sir., Three of the spectators are identified by numbered references etched on left and top of plate, outside image., Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires., Temporary local subject terms: Interiors: Pictures amplifying subject: cock fight., and Mss. annotation above plate "from Mr. McAllister, 30 August 1859, his father has the plate."
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
United States.
Subject (Name):
Griswold, Roger, 1762-1812, Lyon, Matthew, 1749-1822, Dayton, Jonathan, 1760-1824, Condy, Jonathan Williams, 1770-1828, Green, Ashbel, and Congress Hall (Philadelphia, Pa.),
