Thanks but no thanks, Abe Lincoln told King of Siam
BANGKOK: Elephants are Thailand’s national animal, so it’s only natural that King Mongkut in 1861 offered to send a pair to the United States as a gift of a friendship that has endured 200 years.
President Abraham Lincoln, likely bemused and relieved at the distraction from America’s thenraging Civil War, politely declined, saying his country uses the steam engine and would have no use for the working animals.
As part of the anniversary celebrating the longlasting relationship, the US Embassy in Bangkok is showcasing historic gifts the two countries have exchanged on the grounds of Thailand’s Grand Palace.
It includes the first ever official letter sent in 1818 from a Thai diplomat to President James Monroe – there are documents spanning two centuries – as well as some spectacular Thai objets d’art and portraits.
Then there’s the elephants story, also documented among the exhibits. In his 1861 letters, Mongkut offered the elephants after learning they were not native to America. He also sent three gifts: a sword and scabbard, a photograph of the king with one of his daughters, and an impressive pair of elephant tusks.
He addressed the letters to thenPresident James Buchanan “or whomever would become president” with elaborate paragraphlong salutations.
Lincoln was already president by the time the letters arrived, a year later. He penned a reply where he simply addresses the king as “Great and Good Friend”.
The offer of elephants did not neglect practical details. Mongkut stated: “On this account, we desire to procure and send elephants to be let loose to increase and multiply in the continent of America.”
But Thailand – then called Siam – did not have a large enough vessel to transport them, the letter said.
It continued: “In reference to this opinion of ours if the President of the United States and Congress who conjointly with him rule the country see fit to approve, let them provide a large vessel loaded with hay and other food suitable for elephants on the voyage, with tanks holding a sufficiency of fresh water, and arranged with stalls so that the elephants can both stand and lie down in the ship – and send it to receive them.”
The everpractical Lincoln rejected the offer to send wild elephants running through American forests, saying the country “does not reach a latitude so low as to favour the multiplication of the elephant”.
He said in his 1862 letter that “steam on land, as well as on water, has been our best and most efficient agent of transportation in internal commerce”. The exhibition runs until June 30.