December 13, 2023 • 29 mins
Two presidents received an odd gift: a big-ass wheel of cheese. Why?? How?? From whomst??? Listen to find of these curdled mysteries.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
School of Humans. What do we know about the seventh
President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. Well, to sum up,
he's on the twenty dollars bill to celebrate his long
legacy of being a moody bitch and slave owner who
committed a shit ton of genocide against the Indigenous people. Yes,
(00:28):
that is a very truncated biography, but I also think
it's pretty accurate. He got the nickname of Old Hickory
during the War of eighteen twelve. At that time, he
was an inexperienced, hot headed general, but when he got
in order to evacuate a battle, he made sure all
of his soldiers could make the trek. He even gave
(00:51):
up his horse for the sick and injured and just
walked on the ground with his own legs. Wow, such
a nice guy. The Creek Indians had a very different
name for him. They called him sharp Knife because of
his inability to compromise on anything and being a violent,
(01:13):
hard ass bitch. During the Creek Civil War, half of
the Creek wanted to attack the United States settlements on
their land, but the other half wanted to ally themselves
with the United States so it's not to lose their land.
Jackson was in charge of bartering peace between them, and
he made sure that everyone was punished, even the Creeks
who had allied themselves with the United States. At the
(01:36):
end of it all, the United States took twenty three
million acres of their land. So that's just a little
you know, background on Andrew Jackson. What a guy. But
in this episode, we're meeting up with him in eighteen
thirty seven, at the very end of his presidency. At
this point, he was less of a sharp knife and
(01:57):
more of a dull blade, and less old hickory and
more like a soggy old log. He was getting up
there in age and feeble after serving eight controversial years
in the office of the presidency. He wasn't doing too good.
He had a bullet lodged in his chest. He was
falling apart after years of being an angry son of
a bitch. Yeah, that's a diagnosis. And while his legacy
(02:22):
reeks of human suffering, he also left his office literally reeking.
That's right. When Martin Van Buren took over the presidency
after Jackson in March of eighteen thirty seven, he made
a big change. He said that food was banned during
presidential receptions because of Jackson's last big party, he left
(02:43):
the White House reeking of cheese. This is American filth.
I'm your host, Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you
a filthy story from American history. Today's episode a Tale
(03:04):
of two Cheeses. Wow, did you guys like that intro?
How I went from a reek to human suffering to
wreaking of cheese? Was it a weak transition? I don't care,
(03:27):
but yes. Andrew Jackson's last public appearance as president was
alongside a massive wheel of cheese at the President's House, which,
by the way, that's what the White House was called
until nineteen oh one. And he had invited all of Washington,
d c. And beyond to come and feast. Here's a
letter that Jackson wrote on February fourth, eighteen thirty seven,
(03:50):
inviting a friend to the party. And I did paraphase
it a little bit to make it less boring. It goes,
my dear sir. The third of March is approaching with
great joy, before which I hope to see you here.
By then I intend to have eaten my large cheese
presented by my friends of the State of New York.
Can you be here and partake of the feast. It
(04:12):
will be my last and only public day. Oh jolly
day getting that wheel of cheese. All right, so I
keep talking about this cheese. Do you want to guess
how big the cheese was? Make your guesses now, okay,
it was fourteen hundred pounds. Wow. It was like a
(04:37):
literal wheel of cheese. Like you could use it as
a wheel, you know. And if you did use it
as a wheel, you could wheel it through the filth
filled streets of Jacksony in America, and then it would
smell exactly like blue cheese. Amazing here. Yeah, that's right,
I'm coming for the blue cheese. I'm a hater. But
just to tell you a very important thing. The cheese
(04:58):
that Jackson had it was a cheddar. And while cheese
doesn't have to be fresh, yes, it's good to age it.
I suppose by the time that there was this big
cheese party, this cheese had been sitting in the entry
hall of the President's House for over a year. Mmm yummy.
So where did these fourteen hundred pounds of cheese come from?
(05:19):
Thanks for asking this cheese. It was a gift. This
cheese was created by a dude named Colonel Thomas Meecham
from Sandy Creek, a small town in New York State.
He was a rich dude with a dairy farm. His
farm and processing plant was about a mile from the railroad,
and meetchim he actually wasn't the biggest fan of Andrew Jackson.
(05:41):
In fact, he was a supporter of Henry Clay, Jackson's
Whig opponent, and so Meetcham wanted to show Jackson how
amazing New York State was at industry and making stuff,
kind of out of spite, like, Hey, a bunch of
people who don't support you can do amazing things. And
you know what, I got these fancy buildings and I
(06:02):
got industrious people at my disposal. We're gonna make something
great for you. That's right. I'm going to make a
big fucking cheese for you. Also, let me say it's
important for men who are getting older to have hobbies,
So thanks Meachum. Anyway, Meecham went about making a big
ass cheese starting in September of eighteen thirty five. He
(06:23):
had a carpenter make special equipment to facilitate the making
of the cheese, and he was able to source the
milk and curds from his one hundred and fifty dairy cows.
After many milkings and many curdings, and boils and toils,
finally the cheese was completed, all fourteen hundred pounds of
(06:45):
this curdled beauty, and Meechum the cheese overlord. He was like, well,
I'm not going to just make Jackson a cheese. I'm
going to make some other cheeses for some other dudes.
So he made four smaller wheels, a mere seven hundred pounds,
for Vice President Martin van Buren, the Governor of New York,
and the mayors of New York City and Rochester. But
(07:08):
plot twist, guys, this ginormous wheel of cheese was actually
a hack gift. That's right. It had been done before.
Another president had also received the big cheese about thirty
years before. That's right. On New Year's Day eighteen oh two,
Thomas Jefferson opened the doors of the President's house and
(07:30):
was alarmed when he was greeted by a parade of
Baptist presenting a colossal cheddar. All right, so let's just
leave Andrew Jackson's cheese where it is. I'm going to
go on a very long tangent about Thomas Jefferson's cheese
that comprises most of the episode, But this cheese is
(07:51):
more interesting. So here we're with Thomas Jefferson. Now you know,
he was a founding father. He was the third President
of the United States. I think when we look back
at Thomas Jefferson, a lot of us will say that
he was a bad dude, especially given the Sally Hymning situation,
but also when he was still alive, a lot of
(08:11):
people didn't like him as well. Unlike George Washington, who
was universally beloved by most Americans, people had a lot
of opinions about Thomas Jefferson, especially when he took the
office of the presidency in eighteen oh one. Some people
thought he'd been in France too long and was basically
a French infidel who liked to fuck and eat croissants. Disgusting.
(08:33):
But another thing was that Thomas Jefferson was a big
proponent of the separation of church and state, and that
also didn't sit well with people. They were like, God
has good judgment, why are you not asking him about
taxes and stuff? They saw the separation of church and
state as a huge threat to religious citizens. But the
thing is a lot of people applauded the separation of
(08:57):
church and state, even religious people. One big supporter was
the Baptist John Leland. Leland was from Massachusetts and was
a Baptist clergyman, and when he was young he had
lived in Virginia for about fourteen years preaching there. He
might have met Thomas Jefferson and they might have, you know,
(09:19):
had some brunches and talked about ideas. Their relationship is
not exactly known, but Leland from the start was a
big Thomas Jefferson proponent because of the separation of church
and state stuff. And that was for a variety of reasons, because,
first of all, Leland was like, that will ensure religious freedom. Also,
state support of religion is idolatrous, so not even good
(09:43):
for religion. And the thing is he was a Baptist,
which was, in his opinion, a persecuted minority of Massachusetts.
So separation of church and state also made sure that
not one religious sect got to make all the rules.
It was like, ha, you can't exclude us just because
we're loser Baptists. So when Leland returned to Massachusetts in
(10:04):
seventeen ninety one, he settled in Cheshire and started preaching
and a mass quite a following, and then he turned
all of those Baptists into Republicans who would support someone
like Thomas Jefferson. He was like, fuck those Federal a scam.
And when Jefferson was running for president, Leland campaigned super
hard for him, and then when Jefferson won, Leyland was like, yes,
(10:26):
I am partly responsible for him becoming president. He was
so excited about Jefferson being president. He said, quote, the
greatest orbit in America is occupied by its brightest orb.
What a sim And so after Jefferson won, Leyland was like,
I want to give him a nice gift to quote
(10:49):
honor his Republicanism and his support of religious liberty. And
as y'all know, what's the gift that won't stop giving
a giant wheel of cheese. So Leland sent a directive
to the ladies of his congregation and was like, hey, ladies,
sorry to inconvenience you real quick, but I need y'all
to oversee the making of a big ass cheese. And
(11:11):
then he reached out to the rest of the town
of Cheshire. His directive to them was to quote, whoever
owned a cow to bring every quart of milk given
on a given day, or all the curd it would
make to the Great cider Mill. But then Leland made
a little joke. He was like, if you're going to contribute,
just so you know, I do not want the milk
(11:32):
of any Federalist cows. He he he he. He was like,
I don't want to taint the cheese with any of
those nasty cows, any of those loser cows quote, lest
it should leave the whole lump with a distasteful flavor.
So the date was decided. The cows were brought to
(11:52):
the cider mill on July twentieth, eighteen oh one. A
local engineer built all the cheese stuff you need for
a big cheese, and once the ladies of the congregation
had received all the ingredients, they started making the Goliath.
And during the cheese making process, everyone stood around singing
(12:12):
hymns to the cheese baby. Once the cheddar was completed,
it was four feet in diameter, twelve point five feet
in circumference, and twelve inches thick. It totaled about twelve
hundred pounds, and at that point it was the biggest
cheese anyone in the US had ever seen. Leland called
(12:36):
the cheese the greatest cheese ever put to press in
the New World or old. The final touch was to
engrave the cheese with Jefferson's seal, Rebellion to tyrants is
obedience to God. And then came the matter of actually
delivering the cheese. Remember they're in Massachusetts, and they got
to get to Washington, d C. But Leland was gonna
(12:59):
make sure it was gonna be a grand procession. We'll
be back after these soothing advertisements. After the cheese was made,
Leland wasn't just going to put that shit in a
box and send it via the mail. Also, making this
cheese was such an astonishing feat that Leland planned to
(13:20):
take the cheese on tour. He and some members of
his congregation left in late November eighteen oh one for
the first leg of the journey. They put the cheese
in a sleigh to start the five hundred mile journey
to Washington, DC. By sleigh, the cheese arrived at a
port of the Hudson River, and then it went on
(13:41):
a sailboat pulled a sloop to New York, and then
it went to Baltimore, and then finally it went by
wagon to Washington. Everywhere it went, huge crowds gathered, and
Leland made speeches about religious liberty. In Baltimore, a traveler
recounted seeing the cheese. He said, quote, the curiosity of
(14:02):
the inhabitants of Baltimore was universally excited. Men, women, and
children flocked to see the mammoth cheese. Even gray bearded
shopkeepers neglected their counters and participated in the mammoth infatuation.
So yes, the cheddar was being called the mammoth cheese
(14:22):
and Leland the mammoth Priest. But the thing is part
of the reason it was dubbed. That was an insult
because while there were plenty of people who were super
stoked to see the cheese, the cheese was also being
politicized and mocked by critics, particularly by Federalists. They're like,
this mammoth cheese is ridiculous, and honestly, it's a very
(14:45):
embarrassing gift to give the president. Republicans are so embarrassing.
For example, when the cheese was loaded up in New York,
a newspaper mockingly wrote that there are some bakers in
New York now making a giant piece of bread, and
that there was someone in Albany making a giant bottle
of ale, and the article was like, now, mister Jefferson's friends,
(15:07):
they may not only have cheese, but bread, cheese and
porter mayor. Honestly, I don't really know why that's an insult.
That sounds great. The cheese finally reached Washington, d C.
On December twenty ninth, eighteen oh one. A huge crowd
gathered and Leland made a speech upon his arrival, where
(15:28):
he touted the separation of church and state, saying we
must have prohibition of religious tests to prevent all hierarchy.
And then on New Year's Day eighteen oh one, Leland
went directly to the President's house to deliver the cheese
in person to President Jefferson. He knocked on the door
(15:49):
and out came the President, and then there was a
little impromptu ceremony. Leland again made a little speech. He
said the cheese was not made by his lordship for
his sacred majesty, not with a view to gain dignat
titles or lucrative offices, but by the personal labor of
(16:10):
free born farmers without a single slave, to assist for
an elective president of a free people. That's right, God
had no hand in making this cheese, the same way
he should not have any hand in local politics. And
then he said, we wish to prove the love we
(16:31):
bear to our president, not by words alone, but indeed
and in truth. That's right. People, if you really love someone,
why are you not making them one thousand pounds of cheese? Now?
How did President Thomas Jefferson feel about accepting this mammoth cheese? Well,
he did seem to accept the gift with some awkwardness.
(16:54):
First of all, he had a policy where he could
not accept gifts, so he actually paid two hundred dollars
for the cheese, and after Leland gave his speech, Jefferson
also gave one. It's orient thing. This might have been
an accident. Some people think that he was so shocked
by the cheese arriving at the house that he accidentally
received it in person instead of doing what he had
(17:15):
originally planned, which was just to give Leland and his
crew a nice thank you note. But since Leland and
members of his congregation and the cheese were just all there,
Jefferson might have felt pressure to also give a speech.
So it seems that some people think he took the
letter that he wrote and quickly changed it to the
second person and turned it into a little announcement so
(17:38):
as not to insult Leland. This is what Jefferson said
about the mammoth cheese. It was quote extraordinary proof of
the skill with which those domestic arts which contribute so
much to our daily comfort are practiced by them. And
then he sliced off a big hunk of that big
ass cheese. So woohoo, he finally received the cheese. But
(18:03):
the thing is this event, this impromptu ceremony, caused a
lot of issues. Okay, because Jefferson usually didn't make speeches,
it was very rare, and so his Federalist opponents were
very insulted by him doing this. They were like, Wow,
Jefferson is giving a public announcement to the cheese, but
when he communicates to Congress, he only deigns to write
(18:25):
a letter. Wow, cheese over Congress. Fucking unbelievable. And again
the Federalists thought this cheese was insane. Like once Leland
and his party left, Jefferson was having a meeting with
some Federalists. Allegedly, these federalists thought the cheese was extremely
dumb and called it a monument to human weakness and folly.
(18:49):
So Thomas Jefferson getting a big cheese from some people
in Massachusetts. It's a silly story. And some historians think
that this event was completely inconsequential in US history. But
come on, it's a mammoth cheese. How could that be inconsequential.
But other people think that Jefferson receiving this curty gift
(19:12):
might have encouraged him to write a letter called the
Wall of Separation, which just reiterated separation of church and state.
And they think that, you know, the cheese prompted this
because it was written on the same day as he
got the cheese. That Wall of Separation letter says, I
contemplate with sovereign reverence that the act of the whole
American people, which declared that their legislators should make no
(19:35):
law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church
and state. That was a lot of words together, but
basically he's just saying, yes, separation of church and state
ten out of ten. But blah blah blah, politics, la
(19:56):
la la la. The real question is what happened to
that cheese? Well, no one is exactly sure. Some people
think that the cheese was eaten on Independence Day in
eighteen o two and eighteen o three. Some people think
that servants would cut pieces off of it and would
eat it as a little snack from time to time,
and then other reports said that by June eighteen o
(20:18):
two the cheese was already spoiled. But there's a lot
of maggots inside of it, and at sixty pounds of
it had to be cut off and tossed. But there
is some reason to think that the cheese was there
until like eighteen oh four, because there's this fun story
where a senator in eighteen oh four named William Plummer
was at the President's house having dinner with Jefferson, and
(20:39):
Plumber said it was a fine meal. Quote His dinner
was elegant and rich, except for the cheese, which was
that very cheese from Leland. When Plumber ate this cheese,
he said that it was quote very far from being good.
Some people think that a little time after this, the
(21:00):
cheese was completely expired and the rest of it was
finally dumped in the Potomac River. So yeah, so wasteful.
Thomas Jefferson didn't eat all of his cheese. Kind of rude. Honestly,
if I'm getting twelve hundred pounds of cheese, I'm eating
that cheese. But that would not be the fate of
(21:22):
Andrew Jackson's cheese. Let's go back to Colonel Meacham. I
remember his cheese instead of twelve hundred pounds is fourteen
hundred Wowa wow. That additional two hundred pounds represents thirty
years of innovation. Anyway, after Meacham completed the cheese like Leland,
he had to take it to Washington, DC, and again
(21:42):
he was gonna make sure it was a big ass
hubbub along the route. So Meechim and his crew started
their journey in November eighteen thirty five. He was a
bit of a showman, so for the first leg of
the journey, he got this big wagon and painted it
with bright colors and had twenty four horses pull the
wagon that had the cheese in it, and then the
(22:02):
cheese went by boat once they reached port on time,
when the cheese and Colonel Meacham were on the boat,
allegedly he had a band play with cannons firing. This
cheese went through New York City Philadelphia, Baltimore, where all
the people would come out and see the cheese. Wow. Amazing.
(22:23):
Once Meacham and his crew reached d C, he was
taken to the President's House to formally present the cheese.
This time it was also New Year's Day, but eighteen
thirty six, and as a thank you to meetch him
for the cheese, Jackson wrote a letter that was basically like,
oh my God, thank you for this cheese. It really
shows how New York State is amazing at stuff. I
(22:43):
agree you are great. I love when people labor great job.
After the cheese was presented, it sat in the entry
hall of the President's House for about a year, but
then finally it was time to feast. The feast day
when Jackson invited everyone DC to come eat the cheese
(23:03):
was gonna be on George Washington's day, February twenty second,
eighteen thirty seven, and again this was gonna be Jackson's
last public appearance as president. A notice had been written
in a Washington newspaper that said, we understand the President
designs to offer this great cheese, which is finally flavored
and in fine preservation, to his fellow citizens who visit
him on Wednesday next, the President from New York will
(23:26):
be served up in the hall of the President's mansion.
And wow, when you're invited to come eat some cheese
at the President's house, you gotta do it. You gotta go.
Everyone in DC was taking Jackson up on the invitation. Men, women,
and children from every social class descended upon the President's
(23:48):
House ready to eat. Even before they got to the
entry hall, they were already assaulted with the smell. One
newspaper wrote, there arose an exceedingly strong smell, so strong
as to overpower a number of dandies and laxadaisical ladies.
And here's the fun thing. None other than Mark Twain
(24:09):
wrote about the party in a Washington newspaper. He said,
the President's House was thrown open. The multitude swarmed in
the Senate of the United States, adjourned, the representatives of
the various departments turned out representatives, and swarms left the Capitol,
all for the purpose of eating cheese. The court, the fashion,
(24:30):
the beauty of Washington were all eating cheese. Officers in Washington,
foreign representatives, and stars and garters, gay, gorgeous, joyous and
dashing women in all the pride and pomp of wealth
were eating cheese. Cheese, cheese. Cheese was on everybody's lips
and in everybody's mouth. All you heard was cheese, All
you saw was cheese, All you smelt was cheese. It
(24:52):
was cheese, cheese, cheese. Streams of cheese were going up
the avenue in everyone's fists. Balls of cheese were in
hundreds of pockets. Every handkerchief smelt of cheese. The whole
atmosphere for a half a min was infected and reeked
of cheese. Mark Twaine is really painting a picture that
(25:12):
there was a lot of cheese. And the thing is,
there were so many people coming to the President's house
to eat the cheese that the house got overrun. People
who couldn't get through the front doors were hurdling themselves
through the windows just so they could get a little
bit of that chedda And even though this cheese was
perhaps the worst charcoterie board ever to exist, they devoured
(25:35):
the cheese in about two hours. Anyway, while all these
people came to the President's house to eat the cheese,
Jackson was so feeble that he just sat down the
whole time and eventually had to leave. During the devouring
of the cheese, and so he got Vice President Van
Buren to step in and he was like, yeah, you
(25:56):
shake everyone's hands. I'm tired now. And then in the aftermath,
the smell was so bad as people had been going
to get the cheese, you know, the cheese was falling apart.
There was debris all over the ground, and then that
debris got stomped into the carpets. And for months and
months after this, the President's house reaped. And not only
(26:19):
did it reek, the smell of cheese also attracted a
bunch of pests and bugs, so the President's house had
an even bigger bug problem than usual during this time.
So yeah, those were the two cheeses that have been
given to our presidents. And so far as I know,
(26:41):
since Jackson's Mammoth cheese, no other president has personally received
a large wheel of cheese. That being said, though, cheese
has gotten bigger and bigger. Like if you were so
moved by this story that you were like, hmm, I
want to give a gift of big ass cheese to
President Biden. You're gonna have to make an even bigger one.
(27:02):
Like cheese tech has really expanded since Jefferson and Jackson time.
For example, in nineteen eleven, at the National Dairy Show
in Chicago, a cheesemaker presented a twelve thousand pound cheese
right the other one for twelve hundred, fourteen hundred. This
is twelve thousand pound cheese. Apparently at the time President
Taft was there and he was like, damn, that's a
big ass cheese. He also said that it tasted good.
(27:25):
But the thing is, like, people still call big cheeses
mammoth cheeses, so that's stuck. But that twelve thousand pound cheese,
that's a teeny tiny baby cheese compared to what's been
made later. Cheesemakers in Wisconsin in nineteen eighty eight made
a cheddar that was forty thousand pounds, but unfortunately for Wisconsin,
they got beat. The current Guinness Book World record holder
(27:50):
for largest cheese cow's milk is held by a Canadian cheesemaker.
That cheese is fifty seven thousand, five hundred and eighteen pounds. Oh.
That shows the power of socialized medicine. This has been
another episode of American filth. All we learn a lesson,
and I think the lesson today is if you want
(28:10):
to break into the White House. It seems an easy
way to do that would be to present the president
with a large thing of cheese as a ruse, because
apparently in the past you could just walk right up
there and be like, here's a cheese, thanks so much.
(28:31):
American Field is a production of School of Humans and
iHeart Podcasts. I'm your host, Gabby Watts. This episode was
written and mixed by me. The theme song is by
me and Jesse Niswanger. Amelia Brock is the show senior producer,
and our executive producers are Virginia Prescot, Brandon Barr, and
Elsie Crowley. Please like and subscribe to the podcast where
if you listen, leave a review, if it's nice or
if it's not nice, make it funny. And also you
(28:52):
can follow the show on Instagram at American Filth Pod.
Bye m School of Humans.
School of Humans. What do we know about the seventh
President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. Well, to sum up,
he's on the twenty dollars bill to celebrate his long
legacy of being a moody bitch and slave owner who
committed a shit ton of genocide against the Indigenous people. Yes,
(00:28):
that is a very truncated biography, but I also think
it's pretty accurate. He got the nickname of Old Hickory
during the War of eighteen twelve. At that time, he
was an inexperienced, hot headed general, but when he got
in order to evacuate a battle, he made sure all
of his soldiers could make the trek. He even gave
(00:51):
up his horse for the sick and injured and just
walked on the ground with his own legs. Wow, such
a nice guy. The Creek Indians had a very different
name for him. They called him sharp Knife because of
his inability to compromise on anything and being a violent,
(01:13):
hard ass bitch. During the Creek Civil War, half of
the Creek wanted to attack the United States settlements on
their land, but the other half wanted to ally themselves
with the United States so it's not to lose their land.
Jackson was in charge of bartering peace between them, and
he made sure that everyone was punished, even the Creeks
who had allied themselves with the United States. At the
(01:36):
end of it all, the United States took twenty three
million acres of their land. So that's just a little
you know, background on Andrew Jackson. What a guy. But
in this episode, we're meeting up with him in eighteen
thirty seven, at the very end of his presidency. At
this point, he was less of a sharp knife and
(01:57):
more of a dull blade, and less old hickory and
more like a soggy old log. He was getting up
there in age and feeble after serving eight controversial years
in the office of the presidency. He wasn't doing too good.
He had a bullet lodged in his chest. He was
falling apart after years of being an angry son of
a bitch. Yeah, that's a diagnosis. And while his legacy
(02:22):
reeks of human suffering, he also left his office literally reeking.
That's right. When Martin Van Buren took over the presidency
after Jackson in March of eighteen thirty seven, he made
a big change. He said that food was banned during
presidential receptions because of Jackson's last big party, he left
(02:43):
the White House reeking of cheese. This is American filth.
I'm your host, Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you
a filthy story from American history. Today's episode a Tale
(03:04):
of two Cheeses. Wow, did you guys like that intro?
How I went from a reek to human suffering to
wreaking of cheese? Was it a weak transition? I don't care,
(03:27):
but yes. Andrew Jackson's last public appearance as president was
alongside a massive wheel of cheese at the President's House, which,
by the way, that's what the White House was called
until nineteen oh one. And he had invited all of Washington,
d c. And beyond to come and feast. Here's a
letter that Jackson wrote on February fourth, eighteen thirty seven,
(03:50):
inviting a friend to the party. And I did paraphase
it a little bit to make it less boring. It goes,
my dear sir. The third of March is approaching with
great joy, before which I hope to see you here.
By then I intend to have eaten my large cheese
presented by my friends of the State of New York.
Can you be here and partake of the feast. It
(04:12):
will be my last and only public day. Oh jolly
day getting that wheel of cheese. All right, so I
keep talking about this cheese. Do you want to guess
how big the cheese was? Make your guesses now, okay,
it was fourteen hundred pounds. Wow. It was like a
(04:37):
literal wheel of cheese. Like you could use it as
a wheel, you know. And if you did use it
as a wheel, you could wheel it through the filth
filled streets of Jacksony in America, and then it would
smell exactly like blue cheese. Amazing here. Yeah, that's right,
I'm coming for the blue cheese. I'm a hater. But
just to tell you a very important thing. The cheese
(04:58):
that Jackson had it was a cheddar. And while cheese
doesn't have to be fresh, yes, it's good to age it.
I suppose by the time that there was this big
cheese party, this cheese had been sitting in the entry
hall of the President's House for over a year. Mmm yummy.
So where did these fourteen hundred pounds of cheese come from?
(05:19):
Thanks for asking this cheese. It was a gift. This
cheese was created by a dude named Colonel Thomas Meecham
from Sandy Creek, a small town in New York State.
He was a rich dude with a dairy farm. His
farm and processing plant was about a mile from the railroad,
and meetchim he actually wasn't the biggest fan of Andrew Jackson.
(05:41):
In fact, he was a supporter of Henry Clay, Jackson's
Whig opponent, and so Meetcham wanted to show Jackson how
amazing New York State was at industry and making stuff,
kind of out of spite, like, Hey, a bunch of
people who don't support you can do amazing things. And
you know what, I got these fancy buildings and I
(06:02):
got industrious people at my disposal. We're gonna make something
great for you. That's right. I'm going to make a
big fucking cheese for you. Also, let me say it's
important for men who are getting older to have hobbies,
So thanks Meachum. Anyway, Meecham went about making a big
ass cheese starting in September of eighteen thirty five. He
(06:23):
had a carpenter make special equipment to facilitate the making
of the cheese, and he was able to source the
milk and curds from his one hundred and fifty dairy cows.
After many milkings and many curdings, and boils and toils,
finally the cheese was completed, all fourteen hundred pounds of
(06:45):
this curdled beauty, and Meechum the cheese overlord. He was like, well,
I'm not going to just make Jackson a cheese. I'm
going to make some other cheeses for some other dudes.
So he made four smaller wheels, a mere seven hundred pounds,
for Vice President Martin van Buren, the Governor of New York,
and the mayors of New York City and Rochester. But
(07:08):
plot twist, guys, this ginormous wheel of cheese was actually
a hack gift. That's right. It had been done before.
Another president had also received the big cheese about thirty
years before. That's right. On New Year's Day eighteen oh two,
Thomas Jefferson opened the doors of the President's house and
(07:30):
was alarmed when he was greeted by a parade of
Baptist presenting a colossal cheddar. All right, so let's just
leave Andrew Jackson's cheese where it is. I'm going to
go on a very long tangent about Thomas Jefferson's cheese
that comprises most of the episode, But this cheese is
(07:51):
more interesting. So here we're with Thomas Jefferson. Now you know,
he was a founding father. He was the third President
of the United States. I think when we look back
at Thomas Jefferson, a lot of us will say that
he was a bad dude, especially given the Sally Hymning situation,
but also when he was still alive, a lot of
(08:11):
people didn't like him as well. Unlike George Washington, who
was universally beloved by most Americans, people had a lot
of opinions about Thomas Jefferson, especially when he took the
office of the presidency in eighteen oh one. Some people
thought he'd been in France too long and was basically
a French infidel who liked to fuck and eat croissants. Disgusting.
(08:33):
But another thing was that Thomas Jefferson was a big
proponent of the separation of church and state, and that
also didn't sit well with people. They were like, God
has good judgment, why are you not asking him about
taxes and stuff? They saw the separation of church and
state as a huge threat to religious citizens. But the
thing is a lot of people applauded the separation of
(08:57):
church and state, even religious people. One big supporter was
the Baptist John Leland. Leland was from Massachusetts and was
a Baptist clergyman, and when he was young he had
lived in Virginia for about fourteen years preaching there. He
might have met Thomas Jefferson and they might have, you know,
(09:19):
had some brunches and talked about ideas. Their relationship is
not exactly known, but Leland from the start was a
big Thomas Jefferson proponent because of the separation of church
and state stuff. And that was for a variety of reasons, because,
first of all, Leland was like, that will ensure religious freedom. Also,
state support of religion is idolatrous, so not even good
(09:43):
for religion. And the thing is he was a Baptist,
which was, in his opinion, a persecuted minority of Massachusetts.
So separation of church and state also made sure that
not one religious sect got to make all the rules.
It was like, ha, you can't exclude us just because
we're loser Baptists. So when Leland returned to Massachusetts in
(10:04):
seventeen ninety one, he settled in Cheshire and started preaching
and a mass quite a following, and then he turned
all of those Baptists into Republicans who would support someone
like Thomas Jefferson. He was like, fuck those Federal a scam.
And when Jefferson was running for president, Leland campaigned super
hard for him, and then when Jefferson won, Leyland was like, yes,
(10:26):
I am partly responsible for him becoming president. He was
so excited about Jefferson being president. He said, quote, the
greatest orbit in America is occupied by its brightest orb.
What a sim And so after Jefferson won, Leyland was like,
I want to give him a nice gift to quote
(10:49):
honor his Republicanism and his support of religious liberty. And
as y'all know, what's the gift that won't stop giving
a giant wheel of cheese. So Leland sent a directive
to the ladies of his congregation and was like, hey, ladies,
sorry to inconvenience you real quick, but I need y'all
to oversee the making of a big ass cheese. And
(11:11):
then he reached out to the rest of the town
of Cheshire. His directive to them was to quote, whoever
owned a cow to bring every quart of milk given
on a given day, or all the curd it would
make to the Great cider Mill. But then Leland made
a little joke. He was like, if you're going to contribute,
just so you know, I do not want the milk
(11:32):
of any Federalist cows. He he he he. He was like,
I don't want to taint the cheese with any of
those nasty cows, any of those loser cows quote, lest
it should leave the whole lump with a distasteful flavor.
So the date was decided. The cows were brought to
(11:52):
the cider mill on July twentieth, eighteen oh one. A
local engineer built all the cheese stuff you need for
a big cheese, and once the ladies of the congregation
had received all the ingredients, they started making the Goliath.
And during the cheese making process, everyone stood around singing
(12:12):
hymns to the cheese baby. Once the cheddar was completed,
it was four feet in diameter, twelve point five feet
in circumference, and twelve inches thick. It totaled about twelve
hundred pounds, and at that point it was the biggest
cheese anyone in the US had ever seen. Leland called
(12:36):
the cheese the greatest cheese ever put to press in
the New World or old. The final touch was to
engrave the cheese with Jefferson's seal, Rebellion to tyrants is
obedience to God. And then came the matter of actually
delivering the cheese. Remember they're in Massachusetts, and they got
to get to Washington, d C. But Leland was gonna
(12:59):
make sure it was gonna be a grand procession. We'll
be back after these soothing advertisements. After the cheese was made,
Leland wasn't just going to put that shit in a
box and send it via the mail. Also, making this
cheese was such an astonishing feat that Leland planned to
(13:20):
take the cheese on tour. He and some members of
his congregation left in late November eighteen oh one for
the first leg of the journey. They put the cheese
in a sleigh to start the five hundred mile journey
to Washington, DC. By sleigh, the cheese arrived at a
port of the Hudson River, and then it went on
(13:41):
a sailboat pulled a sloop to New York, and then
it went to Baltimore, and then finally it went by
wagon to Washington. Everywhere it went, huge crowds gathered, and
Leland made speeches about religious liberty. In Baltimore, a traveler
recounted seeing the cheese. He said, quote, the curiosity of
(14:02):
the inhabitants of Baltimore was universally excited. Men, women, and
children flocked to see the mammoth cheese. Even gray bearded
shopkeepers neglected their counters and participated in the mammoth infatuation.
So yes, the cheddar was being called the mammoth cheese
(14:22):
and Leland the mammoth Priest. But the thing is part
of the reason it was dubbed. That was an insult
because while there were plenty of people who were super
stoked to see the cheese, the cheese was also being
politicized and mocked by critics, particularly by Federalists. They're like,
this mammoth cheese is ridiculous, and honestly, it's a very
(14:45):
embarrassing gift to give the president. Republicans are so embarrassing.
For example, when the cheese was loaded up in New York,
a newspaper mockingly wrote that there are some bakers in
New York now making a giant piece of bread, and
that there was someone in Albany making a giant bottle
of ale, and the article was like, now, mister Jefferson's friends,
(15:07):
they may not only have cheese, but bread, cheese and
porter mayor. Honestly, I don't really know why that's an insult.
That sounds great. The cheese finally reached Washington, d C.
On December twenty ninth, eighteen oh one. A huge crowd
gathered and Leland made a speech upon his arrival, where
(15:28):
he touted the separation of church and state, saying we
must have prohibition of religious tests to prevent all hierarchy.
And then on New Year's Day eighteen oh one, Leland
went directly to the President's house to deliver the cheese
in person to President Jefferson. He knocked on the door
(15:49):
and out came the President, and then there was a
little impromptu ceremony. Leland again made a little speech. He
said the cheese was not made by his lordship for
his sacred majesty, not with a view to gain dignat
titles or lucrative offices, but by the personal labor of
(16:10):
free born farmers without a single slave, to assist for
an elective president of a free people. That's right, God
had no hand in making this cheese, the same way
he should not have any hand in local politics. And
then he said, we wish to prove the love we
(16:31):
bear to our president, not by words alone, but indeed
and in truth. That's right. People, if you really love someone,
why are you not making them one thousand pounds of cheese? Now?
How did President Thomas Jefferson feel about accepting this mammoth cheese? Well,
he did seem to accept the gift with some awkwardness.
(16:54):
First of all, he had a policy where he could
not accept gifts, so he actually paid two hundred dollars
for the cheese, and after Leland gave his speech, Jefferson
also gave one. It's orient thing. This might have been
an accident. Some people think that he was so shocked
by the cheese arriving at the house that he accidentally
received it in person instead of doing what he had
(17:15):
originally planned, which was just to give Leland and his
crew a nice thank you note. But since Leland and
members of his congregation and the cheese were just all there,
Jefferson might have felt pressure to also give a speech.
So it seems that some people think he took the
letter that he wrote and quickly changed it to the
second person and turned it into a little announcement so
(17:38):
as not to insult Leland. This is what Jefferson said
about the mammoth cheese. It was quote extraordinary proof of
the skill with which those domestic arts which contribute so
much to our daily comfort are practiced by them. And
then he sliced off a big hunk of that big
ass cheese. So woohoo, he finally received the cheese. But
(18:03):
the thing is this event, this impromptu ceremony, caused a
lot of issues. Okay, because Jefferson usually didn't make speeches,
it was very rare, and so his Federalist opponents were
very insulted by him doing this. They were like, Wow,
Jefferson is giving a public announcement to the cheese, but
when he communicates to Congress, he only deigns to write
(18:25):
a letter. Wow, cheese over Congress. Fucking unbelievable. And again
the Federalists thought this cheese was insane. Like once Leland
and his party left, Jefferson was having a meeting with
some Federalists. Allegedly, these federalists thought the cheese was extremely
dumb and called it a monument to human weakness and folly.
(18:49):
So Thomas Jefferson getting a big cheese from some people
in Massachusetts. It's a silly story. And some historians think
that this event was completely inconsequential in US history. But
come on, it's a mammoth cheese. How could that be inconsequential.
But other people think that Jefferson receiving this curty gift
(19:12):
might have encouraged him to write a letter called the
Wall of Separation, which just reiterated separation of church and state.
And they think that, you know, the cheese prompted this
because it was written on the same day as he
got the cheese. That Wall of Separation letter says, I
contemplate with sovereign reverence that the act of the whole
American people, which declared that their legislators should make no
(19:35):
law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church
and state. That was a lot of words together, but
basically he's just saying, yes, separation of church and state
ten out of ten. But blah blah blah, politics, la
(19:56):
la la la. The real question is what happened to
that cheese? Well, no one is exactly sure. Some people
think that the cheese was eaten on Independence Day in
eighteen o two and eighteen o three. Some people think
that servants would cut pieces off of it and would
eat it as a little snack from time to time,
and then other reports said that by June eighteen o
(20:18):
two the cheese was already spoiled. But there's a lot
of maggots inside of it, and at sixty pounds of
it had to be cut off and tossed. But there
is some reason to think that the cheese was there
until like eighteen oh four, because there's this fun story
where a senator in eighteen oh four named William Plummer
was at the President's house having dinner with Jefferson, and
(20:39):
Plumber said it was a fine meal. Quote His dinner
was elegant and rich, except for the cheese, which was
that very cheese from Leland. When Plumber ate this cheese,
he said that it was quote very far from being good.
Some people think that a little time after this, the
(21:00):
cheese was completely expired and the rest of it was
finally dumped in the Potomac River. So yeah, so wasteful.
Thomas Jefferson didn't eat all of his cheese. Kind of rude. Honestly,
if I'm getting twelve hundred pounds of cheese, I'm eating
that cheese. But that would not be the fate of
(21:22):
Andrew Jackson's cheese. Let's go back to Colonel Meacham. I
remember his cheese instead of twelve hundred pounds is fourteen
hundred Wowa wow. That additional two hundred pounds represents thirty
years of innovation. Anyway, after Meacham completed the cheese like Leland,
he had to take it to Washington, DC, and again
(21:42):
he was gonna make sure it was a big ass
hubbub along the route. So Meechim and his crew started
their journey in November eighteen thirty five. He was a
bit of a showman, so for the first leg of
the journey, he got this big wagon and painted it
with bright colors and had twenty four horses pull the
wagon that had the cheese in it, and then the
(22:02):
cheese went by boat once they reached port on time,
when the cheese and Colonel Meacham were on the boat,
allegedly he had a band play with cannons firing. This
cheese went through New York City Philadelphia, Baltimore, where all
the people would come out and see the cheese. Wow. Amazing.
(22:23):
Once Meacham and his crew reached d C, he was
taken to the President's House to formally present the cheese.
This time it was also New Year's Day, but eighteen
thirty six, and as a thank you to meetch him
for the cheese, Jackson wrote a letter that was basically like,
oh my God, thank you for this cheese. It really
shows how New York State is amazing at stuff. I
(22:43):
agree you are great. I love when people labor great job.
After the cheese was presented, it sat in the entry
hall of the President's House for about a year, but
then finally it was time to feast. The feast day
when Jackson invited everyone DC to come eat the cheese
(23:03):
was gonna be on George Washington's day, February twenty second,
eighteen thirty seven, and again this was gonna be Jackson's
last public appearance as president. A notice had been written
in a Washington newspaper that said, we understand the President
designs to offer this great cheese, which is finally flavored
and in fine preservation, to his fellow citizens who visit
him on Wednesday next, the President from New York will
(23:26):
be served up in the hall of the President's mansion.
And wow, when you're invited to come eat some cheese
at the President's house, you gotta do it. You gotta go.
Everyone in DC was taking Jackson up on the invitation. Men, women,
and children from every social class descended upon the President's
(23:48):
House ready to eat. Even before they got to the
entry hall, they were already assaulted with the smell. One
newspaper wrote, there arose an exceedingly strong smell, so strong
as to overpower a number of dandies and laxadaisical ladies.
And here's the fun thing. None other than Mark Twain
(24:09):
wrote about the party in a Washington newspaper. He said,
the President's House was thrown open. The multitude swarmed in
the Senate of the United States, adjourned, the representatives of
the various departments turned out representatives, and swarms left the Capitol,
all for the purpose of eating cheese. The court, the fashion,
(24:30):
the beauty of Washington were all eating cheese. Officers in Washington,
foreign representatives, and stars and garters, gay, gorgeous, joyous and
dashing women in all the pride and pomp of wealth
were eating cheese. Cheese, cheese. Cheese was on everybody's lips
and in everybody's mouth. All you heard was cheese, All
you saw was cheese, All you smelt was cheese. It
(24:52):
was cheese, cheese, cheese. Streams of cheese were going up
the avenue in everyone's fists. Balls of cheese were in
hundreds of pockets. Every handkerchief smelt of cheese. The whole
atmosphere for a half a min was infected and reeked
of cheese. Mark Twaine is really painting a picture that
(25:12):
there was a lot of cheese. And the thing is,
there were so many people coming to the President's house
to eat the cheese that the house got overrun. People
who couldn't get through the front doors were hurdling themselves
through the windows just so they could get a little
bit of that chedda And even though this cheese was
perhaps the worst charcoterie board ever to exist, they devoured
(25:35):
the cheese in about two hours. Anyway, while all these
people came to the President's house to eat the cheese,
Jackson was so feeble that he just sat down the
whole time and eventually had to leave. During the devouring
of the cheese, and so he got Vice President Van
Buren to step in and he was like, yeah, you
(25:56):
shake everyone's hands. I'm tired now. And then in the aftermath,
the smell was so bad as people had been going
to get the cheese, you know, the cheese was falling apart.
There was debris all over the ground, and then that
debris got stomped into the carpets. And for months and
months after this, the President's house reaped. And not only
(26:19):
did it reek, the smell of cheese also attracted a
bunch of pests and bugs, so the President's house had
an even bigger bug problem than usual during this time.
So yeah, those were the two cheeses that have been
given to our presidents. And so far as I know,
(26:41):
since Jackson's Mammoth cheese, no other president has personally received
a large wheel of cheese. That being said, though, cheese
has gotten bigger and bigger. Like if you were so
moved by this story that you were like, hmm, I
want to give a gift of big ass cheese to
President Biden. You're gonna have to make an even bigger one.
(27:02):
Like cheese tech has really expanded since Jefferson and Jackson time.
For example, in nineteen eleven, at the National Dairy Show
in Chicago, a cheesemaker presented a twelve thousand pound cheese
right the other one for twelve hundred, fourteen hundred. This
is twelve thousand pound cheese. Apparently at the time President
Taft was there and he was like, damn, that's a
big ass cheese. He also said that it tasted good.
(27:25):
But the thing is, like, people still call big cheeses
mammoth cheeses, so that's stuck. But that twelve thousand pound cheese,
that's a teeny tiny baby cheese compared to what's been
made later. Cheesemakers in Wisconsin in nineteen eighty eight made
a cheddar that was forty thousand pounds, but unfortunately for Wisconsin,
they got beat. The current Guinness Book World record holder
(27:50):
for largest cheese cow's milk is held by a Canadian cheesemaker.
That cheese is fifty seven thousand, five hundred and eighteen pounds. Oh.
That shows the power of socialized medicine. This has been
another episode of American filth. All we learn a lesson,
and I think the lesson today is if you want
(28:10):
to break into the White House. It seems an easy
way to do that would be to present the president
with a large thing of cheese as a ruse, because
apparently in the past you could just walk right up
there and be like, here's a cheese, thanks so much.
(28:31):
American Field is a production of School of Humans and
iHeart Podcasts. I'm your host, Gabby Watts. This episode was
written and mixed by me. The theme song is by
me and Jesse Niswanger. Amelia Brock is the show senior producer,
and our executive producers are Virginia Prescot, Brandon Barr, and
Elsie Crowley. Please like and subscribe to the podcast where
if you listen, leave a review, if it's nice or
if it's not nice, make it funny. And also you
(28:52):
can follow the show on Instagram at American Filth Pod.
Bye m School of Humans.
Host
Gabbie Watts
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