ABSTRACT

The embryonic United States in 1775 lacked the sophistication, skills, and European diplomatic traditions so integral to a successful secret communications system. Furthermore, certain American leaders, caught up in the theories of the philosophes, pleaded for a rule of reason and openness in American diplomatic practices. Despite the rationalism and ideals of the philosophes, revolutions provide fertile soil for intrigue, espionage, and, of course, secret communications involving ciphers and codes. The chapter considers the use of ciphers as distinct from codes during the revolutionary era and also the necessity for secret diplomatic communication. In the summer of 1775, the Tory spy, Dr. Benjamin Church, wrote a carefully disguised and detailed report in monoalphabetic cipher to a British major, Maurice Cane, in Boston. In view of the British talent for recruiting American spies such as Edward Bancroft and others, American energies devoted to ciphers for diplomatic correspondence sometime seem, in retrospect, rather futile.