The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities reports that on this day in 1801, “the Berkshire County town of Cheshire made a 1,235-pound ball of cheese and shipped it to Washington, D.C. as a gift for the newly-elected President, Thomas Jefferson, who was a popular figure in western Massachusetts. When news of the ‘mammoth cheese’ reached the eastern part of the state, it caused consternation. Jefferson had won the presidency by defeating John Adams, Massachusetts’ native son. Westerners were more in sympathy with Jefferson’s vision of a nation of independent yeoman farmers than they were with the strong central government advocated by Adams and his supporters in the Federalist Party. Cheshire’s cheese was a sign of the tensions over ideology, economics, and politics that long divided the state’s eastern and western regions.”
Plus ça change, plus câest la même chose …
1,400 pounds from a New York farmer in 1835, apparently. It was entirely consumed in two hours in a frenzied party that left the White House smelling of cheese for weeks, according to the National Archives.
In my post last night, I provided a link for those interested in the Giant Cheshire Cheese. Notwithstanding the interesting interpretation offered by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, the story on the Cheese Monument itself and in the town history indicates that the town’s support for Jefferson was an exception to the widespread support for Adams in surrounding towns. (Apparently most Cheshire residents at the time had recently relocated from Rhode Island.)
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The western part of the state often sees things differently from interests in the east, and Jefferson may have had more sympathy out this way, but the cheese story does not appear to support a wider, regional movement against John Adams.
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Also, the town history indicates that the cheese itself was not so much a ball as a “wheel” shape, like many large cheeses. This one was four feet in diameter, and eighteen inches thick, according to the story.
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But Happy Cheese Day, anyway! I did not realize this was the anniversary.
the MA Foundation for Humanities is hard at work to verify a rumor that Dick Cheney is a 220 pound ball of Velveeta.
The story of Adams and Jefferson is one of the best stories of friendship and politics that can be told. Certainly, if anyone doesn’t know the story it can easily be found with a browser. Two good men that define a new country and become friends, fall out of friendship in political squabbling, then become friends again after many years, both to die on the same day, 50 years after the Declaration of Independence signing.
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“Jefferson lives!”
When both parties actively stood for American principles and the debate was over substantive government issues instead of personal attacks.
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Oh wait in fact the election of 1800 was so vicious and so slanderous that even the Swift Boats cant compare to the campaigns of the day. We had “Illegitimate Slave Children for Truth” attacking Jefferson and the “If you vote for John Adams the British win” campaign attacking Adams. Not to mention Hamiltons brilliant “A vote for Adams is a vote for Burr” campaign that won Jefferson his electoral college victory.
I’m surprised nobody else has broken this story. Deval Patrick acquired the remaining 7.3 ounces of the cheese when he started his campaign (how and from whom is a story that rivals The DaVinci Code). The house in the Berkshires was built to divert attention from the real construction project: an underground temperature and humidity controlled vault about half a mile away. Rumor has it that Michael Wilcox is addicted to the cheese, and the Patrick campaign doles out crumbs of it to keep him motivated.