1275. CIPHER, Jefferson's.—
A favorable
and confidential opportunity offering by
M. Dupont de Nemours, who is revisiting his
native country * * * I send you a cipher
to be used between us, which will give you some
trouble to understand, but, once understood, is
the easiest to use, the most undecipherable, and
varied by a new key with the greatest facility
of any I have ever known. I am in hopes the
explanation enclosed will be sufficient. Let
our key of letters be [some figures which are
illegible] and the key of lines be [figures illegible
], and lest we should lose our key or be
absent from it, is so formed as to be kept in
the memory and put upon paper at pleasure;
being produced by writing our names and residences
at full length, each of which containing
twenty-seven letters is divided into three parts
of nine letters each; and each of the nine letters
is then numbered according to the place it
would hold if the nine were arranged alphabetically
thus [so blotted as to be illegible].
The numbers over the letters being then arranged
as the letters to which they belong
stand in our names, we can always construct
our key. But why a cipher between us, when
official things go naturally to the Secretary of
State, and things not political need no cipher?
1. Matters of a public nature, and proper to
go on our records, should go to the Secretary
of State. 2. Matters of a public nature, not
proper to be placed on our records, may still
go to the Secretary of State, headed by the
word “private.” But, 3, there may be matters
merely personal to ourselves, and which require
the cover of a cipher more than those of any
other character. This last purpose and others,
which we cannot foresee, may render it convenient
and advantageous to have at hand a
mask for whatever may need it.—
To Robert R. Livingston. Washington ed. iv, 431.
Ford ed., viii, 143.
(W.
1802)
