Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/266

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��Communications.

��COMMUNICATIONS.

��When Thomas Jefferson dwelled in luxury at Monticello, and John Leland lived in the poor- est portion of Orange County, a strong friend- ship existed between the two, born of their mutual faith in the permanence of popular government and in the high destiny of man. This friendship did not diminish when Le- land changed his home for a rural town in Massachusetts, scarcely known outside of its own settlement. When, therefore, in iSoi, the name of Jefferson was brought forward as candidate for the Presidential chair, the zeal of the minister knew no bounds. With his strong character, iron will, and personal magnetism, he went to work among the independent yeomany who had settled the Cheshire hills. In this region, among this class of people, it is no idle boast to say his in- fluence was omnipotent. He. controlled their votes, and led them to the polls in a solid body. So thoroughly did he teach the princi- ples of a true democracy from pulpit and plat- form, that a traditionary anecdote, now afloat, says that upon one election day the counters of the votes, coming to one for the Whig candi- date, cast it out unhesitatingly as a mistake, never dreaming that there could be a politician of that stripe in their midst.

When Jefferson was declared elected, Leland wished his friend, as well as the people gener- ally, to know how valiantly Cheshire had ac- quitted herself in the battle; so riding around among his parishioners, he proposed that the largest cheese ever recorded should be manu- factured, and sent to Jefferson as a mark of

their congratulations and good will and of the chief industry of their town.

The farmers gladly assented; a day was fixed, and in carts, wagons, aud wheel-barrows the milk from all the dairies was carried to the designated spot, the home of Captain Daniel Brown, a large land-owner and leading farmer. The curd was mixed by Aunt Frances Wells, wife of another wealthy farmer, and an unriv- alled cheese maker. \Vhen finished and pro- nounced good, it was pressed in a cider mill be- longing to Captain Brown, and weighed, when cured, 1,235 pounds.

The following November it was put upon a sled and carried to the river at Hudson, where it was shipped by sloop to Washington. Elder Leland and Darius Brown went on by land; the former, as they stopped at villages along the way, preaching wherever the door opened, and gaining the name of the " Mam-

��moth Priest," as bearer of the mammoth cheese. It was presented with a suitable speech by Leland, and accepted in the same manner by Jefferson, who also wrote a letter thanking the farmers of Cheshire for the gift.

After the lapse of more than eighty years, it has been left to the year 1885 to develop the statement that Jefferson paid Leland for a cheese given to him by the men of Cheshire, and which implies that John Leland appro- priated ^200 that could not have belonged to him. No one who knew the rugged honesty of the man would entertain such an idea for a single moment. That the cheese was designed for a present, not from the "Reverend manu facturer," but from the democratic manufac- turers on the Cheshire farms, there is no question.

It is, doubtless, a fact that Thomas Jefferson did not practice " dead-heading at hotels," nor receiving presents that placed him under obli- gations. It is no less a fact that John Le- land never sought " executive patronage," nor ^ thought to place a mortgage upon the favors of his friend. With just as much spirit as Jeffer- son could have assumed, would Leland have returned any gift that placed him under ob- hgation to the giver.

Scattered, here and there, over the town of Cheshire, are living, to-day, old men and women who remember the cheese-making and have heard it canvassed all their lives, but never before has a hint been given that any price was paid for it.

Nothing would seem more probable than that Jefferson, the old-time friend, situated in affluence, giving, according to this same diary, ^1,585.60 in charity during the year of 1802, and knowing Leland's efforts in his behalf, should desire to make him a personal present.

The year following the gift of the cheese, Thomas Jefferson makes the following entry on the page of his diary :

" 1802. I gave Rev.d Mr. Leland, bearer of the cheese of 1235 lbs weight, 200. D."

He says nothing of paying the givers of the cheese, or even Leland, for it, he simply desig- nates the latter as the bearer of the great cheese.

Knowing the circumstances, and the sterling integrity of Leland, I am firmly convinced that the ^200 was a personal gift to him, and so un- derstood by both giver and receiver.

E. C. Raynor.

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