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In honor of “The Mammoth Cheese,” a 1,200-pound cheese wheel sent to President Thomas Jefferson in 1802 by Elder John Leland as a political statement about religious freedom, the U.S. Navy decided to make a sequel gift. They gave the president what they called the “Mammoth Loaf” of bread to be eaten at a party in the Senate on March 26, 1804. Leland’s followers were Baptists in the largely non-Baptist New England, and the cheese was seen as a symbol of religious freedom and diversity – it was made from the milk of 900 Republican cows, no Federalist ones. The cheese was engraved with the motto “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” The Federalist newspapers weren’t amused by the stunt, and they called it “mammoth” as an insult because Jefferson’s supporters had started using the word to describe various things related to him. By the time the loaf arrived to Capitol Hill, the cheese was too old to eat but the bread was placed in a Senate committee room, along with roast beef, cider, and whiskey.
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