Thomas Jefferson had political enemies...
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Thomas Jefferson had political enemies who thought he was a faithless, lost soul who would burn all the Bibles and ruin the institution of marriage. But he had friends in the religious community who celebrated his informality and simple life. Shortly after Jefferson's inauguration of March of 1801, Baptist minister John Leland began a huge project to honor the new President. He proposed that his congregation in Cheshire, Massachusetts, make him a gift of the world's biggest cheese. Everyone who owned a cow was to give all the milk production of their cattle on a single day. All the people dressed in their Sunday best as they brought their curd to put into a cider press. They were singing hymns and praying as they assembled their offerings, which produced a dried cheese of 1600 pounds. Leland drove the cheese to Washington on a sleigh. News of the big cheese got out, so the trip took three weeks with crowds of spectators turning out along the way. In Washington, as he presented the cheese to Jefferson, Elder Leland preached on the text, "And behold, a greater Solomon is here." The President thanked Leland and gave Leland a large wedge of the cheese so that the donors themselves could share in it, and invited everyone present to help themselves. That was in 1801. There are reports of this cheese being served in the White House in 1805.
-- Mosley
-- Mosley
