In 1861, King Mongkut of Siam offered to send elephants to the United States. The offer was politely declined by President Abraham Lincoln the following year. The story is often retold as an offer of "war elephants" to help fight the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
In reality, Mongkut's original letter never mentioned the war. The offer was purely about introducing elephants to breed in America's forests. The letter was not even originally addressed to Lincoln.
A Friendship That Began with the 1856 Treaty
Diplomatic relations between Siam and the United States had already been established through the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, signed in Bangkok on 29 May 1856.
The treaty was negotiated by American envoy Townsend Harris. Its provisions were modeled on the Bowring Treaty that Britain had signed with Siam a year earlier.
Under the treaty, the United States received the same privileges as Britain. These included the right to establish a consulate in Bangkok and a low import duty of 3 percent.
Unlike Siam's treaties with Britain and France, which were revised several times, the agreement with the United States remained virtually unchanged for nearly six decades. This was because the United States never became involved in territorial disputes with Siam.
King Mongkut himself was fluent in English. He regularly wrote directly to American presidents without the assistance of translators. In the Siamese royal court, a king's letter was regarded as representing the king's own presence.
This tradition of correspondence and ceremonial gift exchanges had been in place since 1856. It began long before the famous elephant letter was written.
A Pair of Elephants for a President
On 14 February 1861, six days after the Southern states formed the Confederacy, King Mongkut wrote another letter. Rather than addressing it to a specific president, he wrote it "to whomsoever the people have elected anew as chief ruler in place of President Buchanan."
In the letter, Mongkut offered several pairs of elephants to be released into America's forests. He hoped they would breed and eventually form large herds.
He explained that "elephants being animals of great size and strength can bear burdens and travel through uncleared woods and matted jungles where no carriage and cart roads have yet been made."
Along with the letter, Mongkut sent three additional gifts: a sword, a photograph of himself with his daughter, and two elephant tusks. The letter contains no statement whatsoever suggesting that the elephants were intended for military use.
A Letter That Arrived Too Late
The letter was originally intended for President James Buchanan. However, the ship carrying it, USS John Adams, did not leave Siam until July 1861, five months after the letter was written.
The ship did not arrive in the United States until January 1862. By then, Buchanan had left office in March 1861, and Lincoln had already served as president for ten months.
Because of this delay, the letter addressed to Buchanan's successor ultimately reached Lincoln. It was not because King Mongkut had deliberately written it to him.
Well, the Elephants Never Went to War
Lincoln replied to the letter on 3 February 1862. The response was actually drafted by Secretary of State William Seward on the president's behalf.
He graciously accepted the sword, the photograph, and the elephant tusks. However, he politely declined the offer of live elephants.
He explained, "This Government would not hesitate to avail itself of so generous an offer if the object were one which could be made practically useful in the present condition of the United States."
He went on to explain that the United States did not have a sufficiently tropical climate to support elephant breeding. He also noted that the country already relied on steam-powered technology as its most efficient means of transportation.
The other three gifts were placed in the U.S. National Archives, where they remain today. They were also displayed to the public from 18 to 30 November 1999, coinciding with the release of Anna and the King.
The story of Lincoln receiving "war elephants" only emerged later. It was popularized by the 1956 film The King and I and was later reused by several politicians as an inaccurate analogy during the Vietnam War era.
In reality, King Mongkut's letter was written before the American Civil War had fully developed into a major conflict. Its contents were solely about breeding elephants, not about military use.
What actually happened was far simpler than the myth suggests. A king sincerely offered a gift, and a nation politely declined it because elephants were simply not suited to the American climate.
