I. Introduction: Natural History as National Identity

The remarkable story of Thomas Jefferson’s diplomatic obsession with delivering a preserved American moose to the French scientific establishment is more than a colorful historical anecdote; it stands as a pivotal moment where nascent American nationalism intersected with Enlightenment-era natural philosophy. This extensive and ultimately costly effort, which unfolded during Jefferson’s tenure in Paris, was a direct and impassioned defense of the sovereignty and vigor of the newly formed United States against a powerful European intellectual libel.

A. The Geopolitical Context: Post-Revolutionary America and European Skepticism

In May 1785, Thomas Jefferson succeeded the renowned Benjamin Franklin as the United States’ second-ever Minister to France. His diplomatic post, officially Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Versailles, began in May 1784. While his primary function involved negotiating commercial treaties, Jefferson quickly recognized that his role encompassed managing America’s international reputation. In the Age of Enlightenment, the credibility of a nation was often judged by the perceived quality of its environment and the natural vigor of its flora and fauna. Defending American nature, therefore, became synonymous with defending the viability and potential of the American experiment itself.  

The intellectual climate of Paris, the hub of European thought, held considerable skepticism regarding the New World. Prevailing notions suggested that life in the Americas was generally inferior. If the theory that American nature was fundamentally flawed gained widespread acceptance among the influential European elites, the long-term consequences could directly affect trade and, critically, discourage necessary immigration to the United States. Thus, Jefferson’s subsequent engagement in a scientific dispute was not merely an eccentric hobby but an act of geopolitical and economic damage control, essential for establishing the young nation’s international legitimacy.  

B. The Great European Insult: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

The source of the most damaging criticism against American nature was Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788). Buffon was arguably the world’s leading naturalist, whose popularity in France rivaled that of Voltaire and Rousseau. His monumental, multi-volume encyclopedia, Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (stretching to 44 volumes over decades), served as the era’s authoritative text on natural history.  

In volumes 9 and 14 of this work, Buffon laid out what became known as the Theory of American Degeneracy. The core of this theory was a form of environmental determinism: Buffon argued that, due to the American climate being excessively “cold and wet” or “colder and more humid,” all species indigenous to the continent were inherently weak, feeble, and diminished. He explicitly claimed that animated nature in America was “less active, less varied, and even less vigorous”. Buffon suggested that American animals were generally smaller than their Old World counterparts, citing that no American animal could compare with the elephant, rhinoceros, or lion. Furthermore, this hypothesis extended beyond wildlife to transplanted European species, which, he claimed, “would soon succumb to its new environment” and produce “puny, feeble” descendants. Critically, these ideas were quickly expanded by other European thinkers, such as the Abbé Raynal, to apply equally to transplanted Europeans and their descendants in America.  

Because of Buffon’s immense stature, his claims were widely accepted throughout Parisian intellectual circles. This cultural weight meant the burden of proof lay entirely on the fledgling American republic to physically refute the libel by shipping costly, immense, and extremely difficult-to-preserve specimens across the ocean. This asymmetry of scientific authority elevated Jefferson’s effort to secure a moose from an unusual pursuit to a national imperative, demonstrating that the defense of the New World required tangible evidence to counter established dogma.  

II. The Literary Counterattack: Notes on the State of Virginia

Before commissioning the famous moose, Thomas Jefferson launched a systematic, scholarly response to the degeneracy theory, documenting his rebuttal in his only published book. The physical shipment of the moose was therefore the dramatic, three-dimensional climax of an intellectual battle that had begun years earlier.

A. The Purpose and Scope of Query VI: Fauna

Notes on the State of Virginia was originally drafted in 1781 during the Revolutionary War as Jefferson’s response to a set of “queries” addressed to state governors by the Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, secretary to the French legation in Philadelphia. When he served as Minister to France, Jefferson enlarged his draft into a full-length book, which was privately printed in Paris in 1785 and later publicly published.  

Jefferson dedicated the longest chapter of the book, Query VI (titled “Mines, Subterraneous riches; its trees, plants, fruits, Etc.”), to a comprehensive defense of American nature. In this chapter, Jefferson mounted a broad rhetorical attack, specifically targeting not only Buffon’s biological claims but also the critique of American cultural inferiority popularized by figures like the Abbé Guillaume-Thomas Raynal.  

B. Jefferson’s Empirical Strategy: Compiling Comparative Data

To effectively counter Buffon’s generalizations about diminished American life, Jefferson employed the analytical rigor of Enlightenment empiricism. He compiled detailed comparative tables of animal weights and sizes for species common to both continents. His evidence included lists of species endemic to America, a list which he proudly noted was four times as long as the list of endemic European species, challenging Buffon’s claim that nature in America was “less circumscribed in the variety of her productions”.  

The American moose (Alces alces americana) served as the key counter-example in his written argument. Jefferson noted the immense size of this magnificent animal: “I have seen a skeleton 7 feet high, and from good information believe they are often considerably higher. The Elk of Europe is not two-thirds of his height”. This comparison was crucial, as it directly refuted the notion that American quadrupeds were merely smaller, enfeebled versions of Old World animals.  

Furthermore, Jefferson was meticulous in his selection of the moose because he believed it represented a species truly unique to the New World, perhaps even belonging to a “new class,” and definitely not existing in Europe. By demonstrating the existence of large, unique, and powerful endemic American species, Jefferson fundamentally challenged the structural integrity of Buffon’s broad, sweeping system of classification and his theory of climate-induced decline.  

C. The Inadequacy of Text: Why Physical Proof Became Necessary

While Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia was a forceful and scholarly rebuttal, the power of written statistics and rhetoric proved insufficient to overcome the deeply entrenched dogma of European naturalism. Buffon, despite respecting Jefferson’s intellectual commitment, would not concede decades of theory based solely on quantitative data. Buffon required tangible, physical evidence to overturn his established worldview, which had been built upon his massive printed works.  

Jefferson eventually realized that only the visual, undeniable sight of a specimen—such as a full-size, seven-foot-tall moose—could overcome the powerful intellectual bias of Parisian naturalists, many of whom simply doubted the size claims made by American voyageurs regarding New World quadrupeds. The moose was intended to be the ultimate, material verification of the facts contained in his book.  

III. The Diplomatic Hunt: Commissioning the Ultimate Proof

Recognizing that visual proof was essential for diplomatic and scientific success, Jefferson embarked on a quixotic, costly, and logistically nightmarish mission to secure the perfect specimen.

A. The Commission and Detailed Instructions

In early 1786, Jefferson formalized his quest. Serving as U.S. Minister to France, he wrote to John Sullivan, then President (Governor) of New Hampshire, on January 7, 1786, urgently requesting the spoils of several large North American ungulates, “but most especially those of the moose”. The animal chosen was the American Moose (Alces alces americana), famed for standing seven feet tall at the shoulder, a commanding spectacle that would prove America’s environmental vitality. The location of the hunt eventually spanned parts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont.  

Jefferson’s instructions for preparing the specimen reflected his combined knowledge of anatomy and his awareness of the necessity of proving the animal’s scale. He specified that the hunters should send the “skin, the skeleton, and the horns”. To ensure the moose could be mounted in a life-like, proportionally accurate manner, he provided a detailed taxidermy blueprint that was revolutionary for its time: the bones of the head, legs, and thighs were to be left inside the skin. This meticulous instruction was designed so that “by sewing up the neck and belly of the skin we should have the true form and size of the animal” upon stuffing. Jefferson stressed that such an acquisition would be “more precious than you can imagine”.  

B. Logistics, Expense, and Environmental Hazards

The effort to secure and transport the specimen became an epic tale of logistical failure born of scientific idealism. The sheer size of the dead bull moose required teams of around twenty men to haul the massive carcass through miles of snow and frozen forests.  

The journey from the forests of New England to the port, and subsequently across the Atlantic to Paris, was immensely complicated and financially burdensome, demonstrating Jefferson’s commitment to dispelling the “unfavorable myths about his country” at his own “personal expense”. Jefferson was billed indirectly for 46 pounds sterling, a significant sum, by drawing on John Adams’ secretary in London. The procurement costs documented included: payment for the horns and expense of procuring the moose, elk, caribou, and deer; the expense of cleansing the skeleton of flesh and salting it to prevent putrefaction; the cost of dressing the skins to preserve them “with the hair on” using materials like alum, brick dust, and tobacco; and the cost of the tanner and the shipping box.  

The following table summarizes the key components of this significant diplomatic and financial endeavor: