Connecticut western news., 1880-07-21
The Great Cheese.
THE STORY OF THE CHEESE PRESENTED TO PRESIDENT JEFFERSON BY THE FARMERS

Our readers,' perhaps, have heard Of MT. Jefferson's Big Cheese, which played such part in the celebration of the Fourth of July, in 1902. At Cheshire, town of Massachusetts, there then lived Baptist minister from Virginia, named John Leland, who knew Jefferson and Madison, and knew what they had done for religious liberty in the Old Dominion. He determined to do his part towards supporting President Jefferson.
 From the pulpit, one Sunday, he in vited every person who owned COW, or cows, to bring. the whole of one days milk to 8 great cider-mill belonging to an old Revolutionary soldier, Capt. John Brown.
 The people, responding with enthusi- asm, made festival of the day appointed, and brought an extraordinary quantity of milk to the old mill, which had been prepared to receive it.
 The machinery worked as it was hoped it would; strong young farmers manned the levers and when the cheese had been pressed, Elder Leland mounted 8 block, gave out hymn, and held 8 re- igious service over it. Finally, he dedi- cated to the President of the United States what he described as the greatest cheese which either the old or the new world had ever seen.
 It weighed sixteen hundred pounds after it was well dried; and then the question arose, how to transport such 8 mass five hundred miles. to the city of Washington.
 Elder Leland undertook the task. He waited until the middle of the following winter, when there was plenty of snow on the ground then he had it placed upon sleigh, and drove it to Washing ton himself three weeks journey.
 He was received in every town with cheers from the Democrats, or the Dems, as they were called, and with jeers from the Feds. Few people then said Demo- crats or Federalists, but every boy was familiar with Dems and Feds.
 On reaching the Presidents house, he presented the cheese with suitable speech, and MT. Jefferson addressed him in reply, concluding by having knife brought, and 8 great piece cut out of the cheese, which he requested the elder to take back to Cheshire, that all the donors might have a taste of it.
 The rest of the cheese was saved until the following Fourth of July, when there was grand banquet in Washington, in tent near the navy yard, at which 8 hundred and fifty guests sat down. In pursuance of his plan of softening politi- cal asperities, the President invited both Dems and Feds to this feast, which, we are told, was so unusual a course, that the company were embarrassed, and not as merry as people should be ata Fourth of July dinner. MT. Gallatin makes this remark about the cheese in letter to his wife:
 "The mammoth cheese was cut on Monday (the Fourth); it is said to be good; I found it 'detestable."
 Let us hope that MT. Gallatin was not good judge of cheese. He ought to have been good judge, for the cheese of his native Switzerland had been noted for ages for its excellence.
 Perhaps, however, he was put out of humor by painful event which occurred during the repast.
 Some marines had been placed as sen- tries to keep back the crowd from press ing into the tent, and one of them thrust his bayonet into 8 amechanic who uttered some offensive words when he was or dered away. MT. Gallatin, who was one of the best of men and Republicans, was deeply indignant.
 "The very sight of bayonet," he wrote to his wife, to preserve order among citizens, rouses my indignation. never want to see the face of soldier in our cities and intermixed with the people. ."-Y Youth's Conepa'sio,e.