ABSTRACT
By 1816, the Age of Metternich was beginning in Europe as conservatives restored legitimate governments to western European countries. The end of the Napoleonic Wars lessened the diplomatic tensions between France and her neighbors; war crises gave way to rebuilding European society in the image of the past. Absent from most of the confidential messages was the sense of urgency or outrage which characterized many of those sent by American ministers before 1816. During 1822, Albert Gallatin sent only two dispatches in code. The first, in late January, wherein he briefly noted the king’s anxiety to settle the American claims for indemnity. Second, in April, he reported the reaction of European nations to the United States’ recognition of the independence of the former Spanish colonies in America. The last of the secret communications in dispatches from American diplomats in Mexico was the cipher employed by Nicholas Trist in 1847.
