On January 29th , the White House is holding"Big Block of Cheese Day . “Inspired by Andrew Jackson ( and Aaron Sorkin ) , " oodles of White House officials will take to societal media for a day foresighted ' open family ' to answers inquiry from everyday Americans in tangible - time . " Here ’s the story of Jackson ’s big cheese .
There ’s a swell fit inThe West Wing ’s installment “ The Crackpots and These Women ” in which White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry ( John Spencer ) endeavor to animate his aggravate team with a story about how Andrew Jackson kept a two - gross ton block of tall mallow in the foyer of the White House . According to Leo ’s tale , Jackson left the cheese there as a populist symbol ; anyone who was athirst could pop out in to the White House for a quick bite to exhaust .
While the notion of Jackson operating a gratuitous Union collation bar is appealing , the story told by Leo is n’t totally accurate . However , it ’s not all that far from the truth . Andrew Jackson did own a grievous block of cheese .
This is its fib .
How did Andrew Jackson end up owning a big block of cheese?
The people enjoy Jackson . Jackson loved cheese . What skilful way to fete Jacksonian democracy than by institutionalise Old Hickory himself an enormous roulette wheel of cheese ? Dairy James Leonard Farmer Colonel Thomas S. Meacham of Sandy Creek , NY , hit on this notion in 1835 , and he had the know - how to craft a titanic cheddar . The yield of Meacham ’s labor movement was a steering wheel that was four animal foot in diameter and two foot thick , weigh intimately 1400 pound sterling , and was wrapped in a giant whack that contain loyal inscriptions like , “ The Union , it must be preserve . ”
This cheese was actually the crown jewel of a larger collection of ten Malva sylvestris that appeared at an 1835 patriotic solemnization in Oswego , NY . After the topical anaesthetic all draw a good look at the cheese and felt themselves well up with internal pridefulness , the bicycle was loaded onto a schooner and set up sail for its newfangled home on Pennsylvania Avenue . Meacham sent off two other 750 - pound wheels in the same consignment , one to Vice President Martin Van Buren and one to New York Governor William L. Marcy .
At some power point , we ’ve all received a attentive , touching , impractical gift and wondered , “ What the hell am I going to do with this ? ” Jackson apparently had the same reaction when the cheese eventually arrived at the White House . According to nineteenth - century biographer James Parton’sLife of Andrew Jackson , the sometime general gave giant chunks of the high mallow to his friends , but he was still left with an absurdly outsized block . Jackson could conquer the Bank of the United States , but he was helpless against such a monumental wheel of cheese .
By 1837 Jackson ’s second condition was wind down , and he was n’t about to hale a two - twelvemonth - old mess of high mallow with him when he will office . So he decided to make the celebrated fromage a featured musician at his last public response at the White House . It was an astute move ; there ’s nothing hoi polloi love more than barren food . The receipt ’s 10,000 visitors assault the steering wheel of cheese with such fervor that the entire thing was gone within two hour .
The reception take away care of the cheese - disposal problem , but the cheddar surely was n’t forgotten . There are certain downsides to sending a big honking block of cheese to a warm climate like Washington and let it sit down around for a couple of year . Namely , the cheese get to get a bit fragrant , and a block that massive can give off some serious Malva sylvestris - stink . Washingtonians could allegedly reek the cheese , which one dubbed “ an malevolent - smelling horror , ” for several blocks around the White House before the big party .
Of course , if a cheese has ride in a elbow room long enough , its aroma can percolate into the fixtures . Jackson ’s successor , Van Buren , apparently found this out the hard way . The Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts , Volume 13from 1912 reissue a letter written by former Senator John Davis ’ married woman , Eliza , in 1838 . Mrs. Davis wrote :
While Jackson ’s receipt cleared the White House of one smelly wheel of cheeseflower , there ’s some evidence to suggest that he left at least one other hulking blocking around as a housewarming talent for Van Buren . fit in to Gilson Willets ’ 1908 bookThe Inside story of the White House , Van Buren eventually contain a charity auction in 1839 to get disembarrass of the last remnants of Jackson ’s old dairy farm holdings , a 700 - pound roulette wheel of American cheese that also do from Meacham ’s New York farm .
Bonus Fact
In thatWest Wingepisode , a young Nick Offerman ( " Ron Swanson " ) played a gentleman’s gentleman lobbying the White House to build a $ 900 million brute - only roadway . knead that into conversation at your next cheese party .
This post in the first place appeared in 2011 .
