Who is this person?

[RJNorton]

YES, Anita! You got it!!! Congratulations!

The sentence I wrote as the question is the last sentence of the paragraph below in which the King of Siam offers elephants to President Lincoln. I believe Sandburg's biography contains more information on the letter than most Lincoln books. This is directly quoted from Sandburg:

"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 elephant can both stand and lie down in the ship. We, on our part, will procure young male and female elephants, and forward them, one or two pairs at a time. When the elephants are on board the ship, let a steamer take it in tow, that it may reach America as rapidly as possible, before they become
wasted and diseased by the voyage. When they arrive in America, do not let them be taken to a cold climate out of the regions of the sun's declinations or torrid zone , but let them, with all haste, be turned out to run wild in some jungle suitable for them, not confining them any length of time. If these means can be done, we trust that the elephants will propagate their species hereafter in the continent of America. It is desirable that the President of the United States and Congress give us their views in reference to this matter at as early a date as possible."


The text of Lincoln's [Seward's?] reply to the King is in the Collected Works:

February 3, 1862
Abraham Lincoln,

President of the United States of America.

To His Majesty Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongut,

King of Siam → ,

&c., &c.

Great and Good Friend: I have received Your Majesty's two letters of the date of February 14th., 1861.

I have also received in good condition the royal gifts which accompanied those letters,---namely, a sword of costly materials and exquisite workmanship; a photographic likeness of Your Majesty and of Your Majesty's beloved daughter; and also two elephants' tusks of length and magnitude such as indicate that they could have belonged only to an animal which was a native of ← Siam → .

Your Majesty's letters show an understanding that our laws forbid the President from receiving these rich presents as personal treasures. They are therefore accepted in accordance with Your Majesty's desire as tokens of your good will and friendship for the American People. Congress being now in session at this capital, I have had great pleasure in making known to them this manifestation of Your Majesty's munificence and kind consideration.

Under their directions the gifts will be placed among the archives of the Government, where they will remain perpetually as tokens of mutual esteem and pacific dispositions more honorable to both nations than any trophies of conquest could be.

I appreciate most highly Your Majesty's tender of good offices in forwarding to this Government a stock from which a supply of elephants might be raised on our own soil. 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.

I shall have occasion at no distant day to transmit to Your Majesty some token of indication of the high sense which this Government entertains of Your Majesty's friendship.

Meantime, wishing for Your Majesty a long and happy life, and for the generous and emulous People of ← Siam → the highest possible prosperity, I commend both to the blessing of Almighty God. Your Good Friend, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Washington, February 3, 1862.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.