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A Scheme to Feminize the Fuhrer, and Other Strange Historic Plans

Khalid Elhassan July 16, 2024 30 min

Scheme - A womanly Hitler was thought to be a less effective Hitler — A womanly Hitler was thought to be a less effective Hitler. Open Art

10. Abraham Lincoln and the King of Siam’s Gift

Scheme - Nineteenth century Siamese soldiers, with war elephants — Nineteenth century Siamese soldiers, with war elephants behind them. Imgur

Diplomatic congratulations and gifts are routinely sent to new US presidents. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln received an offer from Siam’s King Rama IV to populate America with wild Asian elephants. The offer came as part of a package that included huge elephant tusks, an expensive handmade sword, and photos of the Siamese monarch and his daughter. The gifts, sent before the results of the 1860 US presidential election were known in Siam, were not meant specifically for Lincoln, but were sent to “whomsoever the people have elected anew as chief ruler in place of President Buchanan“. Elephants were and remain valuable beasts of burden in Asia. King Rama offered to send young male and female pachyderms, who could be turned loose to breed in America’s wilderness. As he put it:

“[A]fter a while they will increase till there be large herds as there are here on the continent of Asia until the inhabitants of America will be able to catch them and tame and use them as beasts of burden making them of benefit to the country“. Lincoln wrote back to politely decline the offer: “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. Our political jurisdiction, however, does not reach a latitude so low as to favor the multiplication of the elephant, and steam on land, as well as on water, has been our best and most efficient agent of transportation in internal commerce“. If not for that refusal, America today might have elephant herds roaming in its wilderness.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.