Abraham Lincoln politely turned down an offer of elephants from Siam.

Wild elephants bathing in the Mekong River engraving by Louis Delaporte in June 1867
Credit: © Pictures From History—CPA Media Pte Ltd./Alamy
Author Bess Lovejoy
November 11, 2026

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The United States has a wonderful array of native animals — but, it must be said, no elephants. When King Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut, ruler of Siam (modern-day Thailand), found out about this regrettable fact in February 1861, he wrote a letter to then-President James Buchanan to right the wrong. 

In the letter, King Mongkut mentioned having heard about the nation’s elephant deficit during a recent chat with a U.S. Navy captain. He’d also learned in the exchange that “elephants are regarded as the most remarkable of the large quadrupeds by the Americans, so that, if any one has an elephant’s tusk of large size, and will deposit it in any public place, people come by thousands crowding to see it, saying it is a wonderful thing.”

As a friendly gesture, the king suggested sending several pairs of male and female elephants to the U.S., where they could be “turned loose in forests” and “increase until there be large herds.” King Mongkut also specified the conditions elephants require (namely warm weather and an “abundance of water and grass”) and sent along two large elephant tusks as gifts. The king thought that the animals could be useful in unsettled parts of the U.S., “since 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.” At least one of the tusks still resides in the National Archives alongside other gifts from the king, including an expensive sword.

It was President Abraham Lincoln who replied to the letter, about a year later. He noted that while he very much appreciated the offer, there were a few practical difficulties. For one thing, the climate of the U.S. was too northerly (that is, cold), and for another, “steam on land, as well as on water, has been our best and most efficient agent of transportation in internal commerce.” In other words, no matter how impressive an elephant was, it couldn’t quite compete with a steam engine.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

An elephant once lived at the Tower of London.

Abraham Lincoln declined an elephant offer, but centuries earlier, England’s King Henry III accepted one. In 1255, the king of France sent an elephant to England, where it took up residence at the Tower of London. The fortress already housed a royal menagerie, including lions and a white bear (probably a polar bear) that was allowed to catch fish in the Thames while tethered to a long cord. The elephant received its own keeper and a purpose-built house measuring 40 feet by 20 feet, and Londoners flocked to see the unfamiliar animal. Unfortunately, it survived only about two years. The menagerie itself proved far more enduring: Animals lived at the tower for more than six centuries, with many eventually transferred to what is now the London Zoo.

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