"A Day Of Fasting And Humiliation (Not Thanksgiving!)"

by hilzoy

That, much to my delight, is the title of both of John Adams' analogs to Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamations. The text of one of them, along with further reflections and the story of Jefferson and the Mammoth Cheese, below the fold.

"As no truth is more clearly taught in the Volume of Inspiration, nor any more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages, than that a deep sense and a due acknowledgment of the governing providence of a Supreme Being and of the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and righteous distributer of rewards and punishments are conducive equally to the happiness and rectitude of individuals and to the well-being of communities; as it is also most reasonable in itself that men who are made capable of social acts and relations, who owe their improvements to the social state, and who derive their enjoyments from it, should, as a society, make their acknowledgments of dependence and obligation to Him who hath endowed them with these capacities and elevated them in the scale of existence by these distinctions; as it is likewise a plain dictate of duty and a strong sentiment of nature that in circumstances of great urgency and seasons of imminent danger earnest and particular supplications should be made to Him who is able to defend or to destroy; as, moreover, the most precious interests of the people of the United States are still held in jeopardy by the hostile designs and insidious acts of a foreign nation, as well as by the dissemination among them of those principles, subversive of the foundations of all religious, moral, and social obligations, that have produced incalculable mischief and misery in other countries; and as, in fine, the observance of special seasons for public religious solemnities is happily calculated to aver the evils which we ought to deprecate and to excite to the performance of the duties which we ought to discharge by calling and fixing the attention of the people at large to the momentous truths already recited, by affording opportunity to teach and inculcate them by animating devotion and giving to it the character of a national act :

For these reasons I have thought proper to recommend, and I do hereby recommend accordingly, that Thursday, the 25th day of April next, be observed throughout the United States of America as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that the citizens on that day abstain as far as may be from their secular occupations, devote the time to the sacred duties of religion in public and in private; that they call to mind our numerous offenses against the Most High God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore His pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions in time to come; that He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind; that He would make us deeply sensible that "righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people"; that He would turn us from our transgressions and turn His displeasure from us; that He would withhold us from unreasonable discontent, from disunion, faction, sedition, and insurrection; that He would preserve our country from the desolating sword; that He would save our cities and towns from a repetition of those awful pestilential visitations under which they have lately suffered so severely, and that the health of our inhabitants generally may be precious in His sight; that He would favor us with fruitful seasons and so bless the labors of the husbandman as that there may be food in abundance for man and beast; that He would prosper our commerce, manufactures, and fisheries, and give success to the people in all their lawful industry and enterprise; that He would smile on our colleges, academies, schools, and seminaries of learning, and make them nurseries of sound science, morals, and religion; that He would bless all magistrates, from the highest to the lowest, give them the true spirit of their station, make them a terror to evil doers and a praise to them that do well; that He would preside over the councils of the nation at this critical period, enlighten them to a just discernment of the public interest, and save them from mistake, division, and discord; that He would make succeed our preparations for defense and bless our armaments by land and by sea; that He would put an end to the effusion of human blood and the accumulation of human misery among the contending nations of the earth by disposing them to justice, to equity, to benevolence, and to peace; and that he would extend the blessings of knowledge, of true liberty, and of pure and undefiled religion throughout the world.

And I do also recommend that with these acts of humiliation, penitence, and prayer, fervent thanksgiving to the Author of All Good be united for the countless favors which He is still continuing to the people of the United States, and which render their condition as a nation eminently happy when compared with the lot of others.

Given, etc.

JOHN ADAMS"

Personally, I think it's a great shame that no President who had any interest in being reelected could possibly get away with proposing a day of fasting and humiliation, on which we are to reflect on our numerous transgressions. I'm not particularly morbid or consumed with hatred either of myself or of the human race, but I do think it's obvious that we all have, as the Book of Common Prayer says, "manifold sins and wickednesses" which it is useful to bear in mind and reflect on. This has always seemed to me just obvious. And yet, if John Adams were to make this proclamation today, I think he would be accused of hating America, not of recognizing a plain fact about human nature, and about us insofar as we share in it.

Jefferson did not follow Washington in proclaiming a day of Thanksgiving, or Adams in proclaiming a day of Fasting and Humiliation (Not Thanksgiving!). He wrote, in a draft of his letter to the Danbury Congregation that he was persuaded to amend on political grounds ("In the left margin, next to the deleted section, Jefferson noted that he excised the section to avoid offending "our republican friends in the eastern states" who cherished days of fasting and thanksgiving."; cite):

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" thus building a wall of eternal separation between Church & State. Congress thus inhibited from acts respecting religion, and the Executive authorised only to execute their acts, I have refrained from prescribing even those occasional performances of devotion, practiced indeed by the Executive of another nation as the legal head of its church, but subject here, as religious exercises only to the voluntary regulations and discipline of each respective sect"

And here, just because I like it, is the story of Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Cheese:

"On New Year’s Day, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson received a gift of mythic proportions. Amid great fanfare, a mammoth cheese was delivered to the White House by the itinerant Baptist preacher John Leland. It measured more than four feet in diameter, thirteen feet in circumference, and seventeen inches in height; once cured, it weighed 1,235 pounds.

The colossal cheese was made by the staunchly Republican, Baptist citizens of Cheshire, a small farming community in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. The religious dissenters created the cheese to commemorate Jefferson’s long-standing devotion to religious liberty and to celebrate his recent electoral victory over Federalist rival John Adams.

At the time, the Federalist party dominated New England politics, and the Congregationalist church was legally established in Massachusetts. The cheese-makers were, thus, both a religious and a political minority subject to legal discrimination in Massachusetts.

The idea to make a giant cheese to celebrate Jefferson’s election was announced from the pulpit by Leland and was enthusiastically endorsed by his congregation. Much preparation and material were required for such a monumental project. Organizers had to calculate the quantity of available milk and instruct housewives on how to prepare and season the curds. No ordinary cheese press could accommodate a cheese of such gargantuan dimensions, so a modified “cyder press” with a reinforced hoop was constructed.

On the morning of July 20, 1801, the devout Baptist families, in their finest Sunday frocks, turned out with pails of curds for a day of thanksgiving, hymn singing, and cheese pressing. The cheese was distilled from the single day’s milk production of nine hundred or more “Republican” cows. (Because this was a gift for Mr. Jefferson, the new Republican president, the milk of “Federalist” cows was scrupulously excluded.)

The cheese was transported down the eastern seaboard by sloop and sleigh, arriving in the Federal City on the evening of December 29. (By the time it reached Baltimore, one wag reported, the ripening cheese, now nearly six months removed from the cows, was strong enough to walk the remaining distance to Washington.) The “Mammoth Priest,” as the press dubbed Leland, recounted that along the route he paused frequently to preach to “large congregations” of curious onlookers.

According to press accounts, Jefferson personally received the cheese on New Year’s morning. Dressed in his customary black suit, he stood in the White House doorway, arms outstretched, eagerly awaiting the cheese’s arrival. The gift was received with cordial expressions of gratitude and exuberant cheese-tasting. The cheese-makers heralded their creation as “the greatest cheese in America, for the greatest man in America.”"

I love my home state in all its quirkiness. I also love it for giving me the occasion to quote one of my favorite dreadful poems, Prophecy Of A Ten Ton Cheese:

"Who hath prophetic vision sees
In future times a ten ton cheese,
Several companies could join
To furnish curd for great combine
More honor far than making gun
Of mighty size and many a ton.

Machine it could be made with ease
That could turn this monster cheese,
The greatest honour to our land
Would be this orb of finest brand,
Three hundred curd they would need squeeze
For to make this mammoth cheese."

Really, in a world that has held both Thomas Jefferson and Prophecy Of A Ten Ton Cheese, how could one fail to be grateful?

Comments

[Jesurgislac]

Two of my favourite West Wing episodes deal with Big Block of Cheese Day, aka "Throw Open Our Office Doors To People Who Want To Discuss Things That We Could Care Less About". I love Toby.

(Even when he says things like "Leo, wouldn't this time be better spent plotting a war against a country that can't possibly defend itself against us?")

[hilzoy]

Jes -- really? Serves me right for stopping watching after the first couple of seasons. I had never heard of the Mammoth Cheese before this morning.

[Jesurgislac]

Both the Big Block of Cheese episodes happen in the first two seasons. (I stopped watching two episodes into the fifth season, deciding that not even for the sake of getting to see Alan Alda play a Republican could I bear the New Improved Dialogue.)

[Ara]

Reminds me of the fame'd octuple Gloucester.

[OCSteve]

Wow. A show about liberals, written by liberals, and you two didn’t even stick? I’m amazed it went that many seasons :)

[Jesurgislac]

OCSteve: A show about liberals, written by liberals

What?

Oh, yes, from an American POV Bartlett and crew are liberals: from my POV, they were cuddly Conservatives.

But the dialogue! I'd put up with anything, even the three minutes of shmaltzy American patriotism at the end of far too many episodes, for the dialogue that Aaron Sorkin could write.

When he left the show, I left too.

[liberal japonicus]

Blessed are the cheese makers?

(Jes, you should be ashamed of yourself for missing that one!)

[chdb]

Both the Big Block of Cheese episodes happen in the first two seasons. (I stopped watching two episodes into the fifth season, deciding that not even for the sake of getting to see Alan Alda play a Republican could I bear the New Improved Dialogue.)

Jes, you missed out. Yes, the fifth season varies in quality, between "mediocre" and "unimaginative" for the most part (the major exception being a wonderful, sparkling, and wholly unrealistic storyline about the confirmation of new Supreme Court justices, featuring Glenn Close, William Fichtner and Robert Picardo in supporting roles), but the sixth and seventh seasons are very solid teevee by any standard as the plot shifts to Josh's running of Jimmy Smits' presidential campaign and CJ taking over the duties of Chief of Staff as Jed's health chooses the least favorable time to worsen.

The dialogue doesn't quite hit the high of the Sorkin seasons, but it gets back to a place where at least it's not distracting, and the storyline and acting are rock-solid.

[OCSteve]

When he left the show, I left too.

Fair enough. Just yanking your chain. :)

[Jesurgislac]

Just yanking your chain. :)

*clank, clank*

:p

[kid bitzer]

"It measured more than four feet in diameter, thirteen feet in circumference, and seventeen inches in height"

"four feet in diameter--eh, not that impressive.

thirteen feet in circumference--wow, that's big!"

pi was clearly as non-obvious back then as it is now.

[dutchmarbel]

Didn't christians do something like that (fasting and reflecting) around easter? Like the islamic ramadan?

And with cheese quality matters a whole lot more than quantity IMHO...

[magistra]

The problem with a day of fasting and humiliation and remembrance of our sins, is that in the current political climate it would only encourage the remembrance of *their* sins (where 'they' are the members of our nation who we disapprove if). Because *our* main sin is of course tolerating 'their' behaviour and not doing enough to prevent it or denounce it.

On second thoughts, that's probably true in most political situations: most of the time when you remember your country's sins it is with the implicit provisio that most of it is not really your fault.

[Platosearwax]

I would trust dutchmarbel on the topic of cheese. Ah my beloved edam and gouda. Ate edam for breakfast this morning as it happens.

[Jesurgislac]

Magistra: most of the time when you remember your country's sins it is with the implicit provisio that most of it is not really your fault.

Mmm. And now it's no longer Thanksgiving, can I say how well this ties into the many, many pro-war pundits who ridiculed the people who opposed the invasion of Iraq, and now that we're proved right and they're proved wrong, they've mostly switched smoothly over to opposing the war (because they'd look stupid now if they supported it) while declining to acknowledge that they were wrong, and the people they ridiculed were right?

Now I'd like to apologize for George III, for Andrew Carnegie, and for supporting Tony Blair. :-(

[ajay]

It's an interesting juxtaposition: Leland's Mammoth Cheese symbolising dissent, political diversity and republican ideals; and the Ten Ton Cheese (according to the poet) symbolising the promised growth of the British Empire, into which other nations and provinces would be squeezed like curds.

I think I feel a chapter coming on for Cheese: A Political Metaphor and the Dawn of the Modern Nation-State (in bookshops soon!)

Of course, it'll also mention de Gaulle - "how can any man govern a country with 246 different sorts of cheese?" and finish up with a conclusion touching on the fuss over whether parmesan cheese has to come from Reggio Parmigiano, and the sickening spread of homogenised "American Cheese".

[Phil]

I never watched a single episode of The West Wing, because I couldn't forgive Sorkin for choosing it over the absolutely sublime Sports Night, damn him.

Jes, is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip airing in the UK? Sorkin's doing most of the writing on that one. And it's his extended -- in every sense of the word -- middle finger to: A) the TV industry, B) the press and all their mean stories about his drug problems, C) bloggers, for the same reason, and D) the religious right, particularly ex-girlfriend Kristen Chenoweth.

Still, it's not a bad show. Still finding its tone.

[Jesurgislac]

Phil: Jes, is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip airing in the UK? Sorkin's doing most of the writing on that one.

Thanks for the tip: I'll look out for it. (I don't think it's broadcasting over here yet.)

Marbel: And with cheese quality matters a whole lot more than quantity IMHO...

Indeed. Mmm, cheese.

[Francis]

What A Friend We Have In Cheeses

“Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese” — G.K. Chesterton

What a friend we have in cheeses,
For no food more subtly pleases,
Nor plays so vast a gastronomic part;
Cheese imported—not domestic—
For we all get indigestic
From the pasteurizer’s Kraft and sodden art.

No poem we shall ever see is
Quite so lovely as a Brie is,
For “the queen of cheese” is what they call the Brie;
If you pay sufficient money
You will get one nice and runny,
And you’ll understand what foods these morsels be!

How we covet all the skills it
Takes in making Chèvre or Tilset,
But if getting basic Pot Cheese is your aim,
Take some simple curds and wheys, a
Bit of rennet — Lo! you’ve Käese!
(Which is what, in German, is a cheese’s name.)

Good lasagna, it’s a-gotta
Mozzarella and Ricotta
And a lotta freshly grated Parmesan;
With the latter any pasta
Will be eaten up much faster,
For with Parmesan you’ll find a charm is on.

Ask Ignacio Silone
What he thinks of Provolone,
And the very word will set his eyes aflame;
Then go ask the bounteous Gina
Her reaction to Fontina—
If you raise your eyes, you’ll see she feels the same.

A Pont-l’Évèque au point! What ho!
How our juices all will flow!
But don’t touch a Pont-l’Évèque beyond that stage,
For what you’ll have, you’ll surely find
Is just an overfragrant rind—
There’s no benefit to this fromage from age.

Claret, dear, not Coca-Cola,
When you’re having Gorgonzola—
Be particular to serve the proper wines;
Likewise pick a Beaune not Coke for
Pointing up a Bleu or Roquefort—
Bless the products of the bovines and the vines!

Ave Gouda! Ave Boursault!
Ave Oka even more so!
Ave Neufchâtel! Saluto Port-Salut!
And another thing with cheeses—
Every allied prospect pleases—
Ah timbale! Ah Welsh Rabbit! Ah fondue!

And we all know that “Say cheese” is
How a cameraman unfreezes
A subject in a stiff, or shy, or dour way;
There’s no other food so useful,
So bring on a whole cabooseful
Of the stuff of life — the cheeses of the gourmet!

– William Cole

From an Almanac of Words at Play, one of my favorite books growing up.

[Donald Johnson]

I generally liked West Wing when they were doing domestic shows and/or when the emphasis was on the characters, their quirkiness, their wit, etc... In other words, when it was The Gilmore Girls do the White House.

I hated West Wing whenever they did a foreign policy episode and it was some centrist liberal fantasy about tough-minded liberals showing that they could bomb foreigners when they had to. I pretty much tuned out the whole imaginary war against some imaginary Mideast country that they did in parallel to the real world after 9/11.

[Jesurgislac]

Donald, I didn't mind the episodes where Bartlet comes across as a "let's bomb the Middle East!" kind of President - I didn't like the way Bartlet used the power he had to make war, but it didn't strike me as in any way out of character for an American President, Democratic or Republican. Or Toby Ziegler defending the use of land mines - that made me angry, but angry with Toby, because I could see how he'd talked himself into defending the "realistic" political position: it made sense.

I don't really want to know that (if) Sorkin found Bartlet or Ziegler admirable at those worst moments. It would probably spoil watching it for me.

There's a particular example of this - I was really looking forward to getting to see the post-9/11 special episode Aaron Sorkin wrote, but I was fearfully disappointed by it when I did get to see it. (The title should have given me a clue that it was going to focus on the wrong stuff: Isaac and Ishmael.) But it wasn't even well written - it had a shoddy structure, the WW characters didn't sound like themselves, and the one incident that was true-to-life - American Muslim harassed and assumed to be a traitor because of his surname - ended with the man back at his desk, suspicion apparently gone from him... and as far as I remember, we never see a Muslim working at the White House again.

I shouldn't have been disappointed: it fitted a pattern. A lot of American fanfic writers, immediately after 9/11, wrote one or more fanfic stories about their favorite characters, reacting to 9/11. Fanfic can be very well written, but I can't think of a single example of those stories that was any good - they were understandable emotional blow-outs. The fanfic writers, though, tended to focus on what was important to them - the attack on the WTC and the New York response to it, which made their stories more readable than Sorkin's attempt to put a political gloss on it with a cheapjack analysis of Middle Eastern politics that had no more depth or sense to it than Bush's "They hate us because of our freedoms".

[javelina]

On the topic of bad poetry (not cheese), hil, I'm kind of assuming that you know the oeuvre of Julia Moore, the "Sweet Singer of Michigan"? "Ashtabula Bridge Disaster" is a personal favorite.

[Gromit]

I, for one, find "Studio 60" pretty much insufferable. I wouldn't call myself an avid viewer of The West Wing, but it did have some escapist appeal during the darker moments of Republican rule. But who the hell fantasizes about sanctimonious and unfunny sketch comedy?

"Thirty Rock", on the other hand, is awesome.