Splendor of Gods and Kings in Thailand

The letters exchanged in 1861–62 between Mongkut, king of Siam, and President Abraham Lincoln are among the most curious in the White House files. Mongkut’s offer to ship breeding pairs of elephants, highly valued beasts of many uses in his kingdom, arrived in the United States in February 1861. A year later, Lincoln took a moment away from the Civil War to reply:

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