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Very well researched article "Mammoth Cheese" on the Monticello.org website.
Poems by Thomas Kennedy -- http://books.google.com/books?id=tAFMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA85# --
p. 59 - poem - p. 63 - speech of Logan
85 [88 in pdf file] - 87 [90 in pdf] Ode to the Mammoth Cheese
Excerpt from Kennedy's bio in Maryland House of Delegates website:
From the very beginning of his legislative career, he demonstrated an interest in social issues. In the words of his granddaughter, he "took an active part in politics largely...because of his interest in religious freedom."
Because of this interest, he was, in 1818, placed on a committee in the House that was to consider removing the "political disability of the Jews."
At the time, there were only about 150 Jews in Maryland. Thomas Kennedy had never even met one, but he was outraged by the injustice of excluding an entire group of people because of their religious beliefs. For him, religion was "a question which rests, or ought to rest, between man and his Creator alone."
The bill reported out of the committee in January 1819 was entitled "An Act to extend to the sect of people professing the Jewish religion the same rights and privileges that are enjoyed by Christians." When it was defeated, Kennedy pledged himself to renew the fight. The following year, Kennedy reintroduced the bill and it was defeated again by a wide margin.
These efforts to secure religious liberty for the Jews brought him virulent attacks as "an enemy of Christianity" and a "Judas Iscariot" and, in the election of 1823, Kennedy was defeated by Benjamin Galloway, who had spoken out strongly against the "Jew Bill." Even while out of office, Kennedy declared his intention to continue the fight: "although exiled at home, I shall continue to battle for the measure, aye, until my last drop of blood."
More:
JSTOR has an article "ELDER JOHN LELAND AND THE MAMMOTH CHESHIRE CHEESE" by C. A. BROWNE in ... Agricultural History © 1944 Agricultural History Society
Wikipedia account of the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese cites: Sylvanus Urban, "Correspondence of Sylvanus Urban: The Great Cheshire Political Cheese." The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume II, 1869.
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