The American Diplomatic Code

A compilation of official U.S. treaties in chronological order

Elliot, Jonathan, Compiler. The American Diplomatic Code: Embracing a Collection of Treaties and Conventions between the United States and Foreign Powers from 1778 to 1834. Also a Concise Diplomatic Manual Containing a Summary of the Law of Nations from the Works of Wicquefort, Vattel, Martens, Ward, Kent, Story, &c &c. Washington: Printed by J. Elliott, Jun., 1834. Two volumes, 1,334 pp. Reprinted 2003 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-301-4. Hardcover. * A useful source of original treaties and conventions with other countries worldwide, with an index organized by country, a table of the negotiators, a diplomatic chronology from 1326 to 1834 offering dates of treaties, and a summary of the law of nations from selected renowned sources. First published in 1827, this is a reprint of Elliot's second, updated and final edition, which was adopted by Secretary of State McLane for the use of his department during the Jackson administration (1829-1837). "Although the collection of treaties has been superseded by later collections, Elliot's summaries of judicial decisions are still valuable." DAB III:93. Elliot [1784-1846] is widely known as the author of the important Constitutional collection, The Debates in the Several State Conventions of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Dictionary of American Biography III:92-93.

United States Diplomatic Codes and Ciphers, 1775-1938 is the first basic reference work on American diplomatic cryptography. Weber's research in national and private archives in the Americas and Europe has uncovered more than one hundred codes and ciphers. Beginning with the American Revolution, these secret systems masked confidential diplomatic correspondence and reports.During the period between 1775 and 1938, both codes and ciphers were employed. Ciphers were frequently used for American diplomatic and military correspondence during the American Revolution. At that time, a system was popular among American statesmen whereby a common book, such as a specific dictionary,was used by two correspondents who encoded each word in a message with three numbers. In this system, the first number indicated the page of the book, the second the line in the book, and the third the position of the plain text word on that line counting from the left. Codes provided the most common secret language basis for the entire nineteenth century.Ralph Weber describes in eight chapters the development of American cryptographic practice. The codes and ciphers published in the text and appendix will enable historians and others to read secret State Department dispatches before 1876, and explain code designs after that year.

"Embracing a collection of treaties and conventions between the United States and foreign powers from 1778 to 1834 ; also, a concise diplomatic manual containing a summary of the law of nations from the works of Wicquefort, Martens, Kent, Vattel, Ward, Story, etc."--T.p.