The First Fisticuffs in the U.S.
Congress . . .
Congress . . .
It wasn't long before the end of the Revolutionary War - really it was
immediate - when the political body of the new nation broke into faction.
The first parties were the Federalists and the Republicans. The Federalists
wanted a strong central government. The Republicans wanted to protect the
rights of the states. And today, to the extent the Tea Party represents the
newly active and resurgent right wing of the Republican Party with their
distrust of Washington, D.C., we're where we were back in the 1790s.
In fact, just as name calling is prevalent today in our current political
climate, with President Obama being labeled a Communist by those who
disagree with his politics, John Adams, while serving as Vice-President
under George Washington, was derided as a Monarchist by his opponents.
And the pamphleteer James Callender found Adams a "hideous
hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a
man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." (1) If those aren't
fighting words!
Pictured above is a cartoon of the first physical fight in the U.S. House.
January 1798 in Philadelphia's Congress Hall, Federalist Roger Griswold
of Connecticut insulted Vermont Republican Mathew Lyon. Lyon then spat
in Griswold's face. Griswold took a cane and came after the sputum
spewer. Lyons managed to grab a pair of fire tongs and the battle raged
until the combatants were pulled apart.
Note the glee with which the spectators cheer on Griswold and Lyon!
Would not the politicos of the day back then not think that what passes for
discourse today tame? In a day when moderate is a filthy word, might they
not watch FOX and MSNBC and think we're a bunch of milquetoast
namby-pambys? Or can we take some solace in thinking if they could hear
talk-radio today, they'd take no small satisfaction that the precedent of two
centuries past is alive and well if not quite violent enough?
immediate - when the political body of the new nation broke into faction.
The first parties were the Federalists and the Republicans. The Federalists
wanted a strong central government. The Republicans wanted to protect the
rights of the states. And today, to the extent the Tea Party represents the
newly active and resurgent right wing of the Republican Party with their
distrust of Washington, D.C., we're where we were back in the 1790s.
In fact, just as name calling is prevalent today in our current political
climate, with President Obama being labeled a Communist by those who
disagree with his politics, John Adams, while serving as Vice-President
under George Washington, was derided as a Monarchist by his opponents.
And the pamphleteer James Callender found Adams a "hideous
hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a
man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." (1) If those aren't
fighting words!
Pictured above is a cartoon of the first physical fight in the U.S. House.
January 1798 in Philadelphia's Congress Hall, Federalist Roger Griswold
of Connecticut insulted Vermont Republican Mathew Lyon. Lyon then spat
in Griswold's face. Griswold took a cane and came after the sputum
spewer. Lyons managed to grab a pair of fire tongs and the battle raged
until the combatants were pulled apart.
Note the glee with which the spectators cheer on Griswold and Lyon!
Would not the politicos of the day back then not think that what passes for
discourse today tame? In a day when moderate is a filthy word, might they
not watch FOX and MSNBC and think we're a bunch of milquetoast
namby-pambys? Or can we take some solace in thinking if they could hear
talk-radio today, they'd take no small satisfaction that the precedent of two
centuries past is alive and well if not quite violent enough?
"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."
Lyon thrice / Upon
his head, enrag'd sir, /
Who seiz'd the tongs
to ease his wrongs, /
And Griswold thus
engag'd, sir."
(updated 05/12/10)
(1) McCullough, David. John Adams. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 537.