After the war the Vermont hero twice ran for election to Congress, and failed when the court martial was used to smear him. Captain Lyon later fought bravely in the battles of Bennington and at Saratoga, rising to the rank of colonel. Found guilty, Matthew lost his command, but he was not reduced in rank. Despite Lyon trying to talk his independent minded soldiers to stay, Gates still ordered Lyon arrested and tried before a military court. Lyon said later, “The soldiers considered themselves sacrificed”, and they decided to retreat. And just as they arrived, word came of a party of 500 Indians coming to attack them. The next year General Horatio Gates ordered Captain Lyon to take 60 men north to the Onion River. His name was Matthew Lyon, and he had been a Second Lieutenant in the Green Mountain Boys when they captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1776.
Blount's toilet trip provided that opportunity. So Adams sent a copy of the "Dear Cary" letter to Federalists in the Senate, but insisted it be kept secret until Senator Blount could do nothing to stop the public reading of the letter. Adams was a Federalist and he saw a chance to embarrass his own Vice President, Thomas Jefferson, who presided over the Senate (above) and was also the leader of the opposition party, the Democrat-Republicans - of whom Senator William Blount was an important member. Instead, Cary shared the letter with his bosses in the War Department, who immediately shared it with President John Adams.
Senator Blount expected Cary to convince the Creeks to join the conspiracy. So Blount wrote this letter to James Cary, who was a translator with the Creek Indian nation in eastern Tennessee. It was a fantasy of course, but the more Senator Blount thought about this idea, the more he thought it was his idea - particularly after he had improved it by creating a well paid job for himself as a British agent.
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