Roger Griswold

Roger Griswold (May 21, 1762ndash October 25, 1812) was governor of Connecticut and a member of the US House of Representatives, serving as a Federalist.

Born in Lyme, New London County, Connecticut to Matthew Griswold and Ursula (Wolcott) Griswold; pursued classical studies, and was graduated from Yale College in 1780; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1783 and commenced practice in Norwich, Connecticut; returned to Lyme in 1794; elected as a Federalist to the Fourth and to the five succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1795, until his resignation in 1805 before the convening of the Ninth Congress; chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business (Sixth Congress), Committee on Ways and Means (Sixth Congress); declined the portfolio of Secretary of War tendered by President John Adams in 1801; served as a judge of the supreme court of Connecticut in 1807; presidential elector on the Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Rufus King ticket; Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut 1809-1811; Governor of Connecticut from 1811 until his death in Norwich; interment in Griswold Cemetery at Black Hall, in the town of Lyme (now Old Lyme, Connecticut).

Griswold was grandfather of congressman Matthew Griswold. Griswold's father (Matthew Griswold), his maternal grandfather (Roger Wolcott), his uncle (Oliver Wolcott), and his cousin (Oliver Wolcott, Jr.) were all also Governors of Connecticut.

Griswold was the first congressman to engage in a physical altercation with another congressman. Matthew Lyon, a Republican senator, was insulted by Griswold on the floor, and proceeded to spit on him. Two weeks later, Griswold attacked him with a cane. Lyon promptly picked up a pair of fire tongs to ward him off.

In 1803 along with several other New England Federalist politicians he proposed secession from the union due to the growinginfluence of Jeffersonian Democrats and the Louisiana Purchase which they felt would dilute Northern influence.

External links

* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000488 Biographic sketch at U.S. Congress]