Andrew Jackson's
1829 inauguration was the occasion for the wildest party ever thrown in White House history.
The party was
open to the public. Jackson was immensely popular, and 20,000 of his
backwoods supporters crammed onto the White House grounds for the party. No, I don't know how that's possible.
There was plenty of whiskey, served out of large tubs, but the centerpiece of the party was an 1,400 pound wheel of
cheese the guys in
coonskin caps rolled into the
East Room. The cheese, it must be said, lasted only two hours.
The whiskey lasted a bit longer, and after the party was over, there was almost as much destruction as when the
British had burned the place 14 years previously, during the
War of 1812.
And the White House smelled like cheese for weeks.