The Plymouth Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1878-1901, 1879-05-15
THE CIPHER DISPATCHES.

THE CIPHER DISPATCHES.
In the Summer of 1879 The NEw-YoRK TRIBUNE
found itself in possession of of telegraphic
dispatches which had passed between certain
leaders of the Democratic party in New-York City
Ind their confidential agents in various contested
States at the time of the canvass OF the electoral
vote in 1876. The whole number of these dis
patches was not far from 400 About half of them
were in plain English these although they were
sometimes useful in determining the meaning of
messages of another kind. related generally to
of little importance. The rest were IN
cipher. and slight examination was sufficient to
show that they covered political secrets of the first
consequence.
We first began dealing seriously with these dis
patches during the Summer of 1878. The TACT That
the publication of the famous Gobbe" message
had soon brought forward person familiar with
the cipher in which it was sent, led to the belief
that a similar result might be reached again. Speci-
mems of the various ciphers accordingly pub
lished from time to time. accompanied with COM
ments intended to attract to them wide attention.
Our hope, however, was completely disappointed
No one seemed to know the key. Absolutely no
help came from any quarter. All manner of sugges-
tons were received, and many were trieu out none
proved in the end to be OF the shgntest practieal
value save a single one communicated by Secretary
Evarts. That gentleman suggested that possibly
thorough student of pure mathematics might be
able to divine law on which the ciphers were con-
structed. Copies of few of the dispatches were
thereupon sent to mathematical professor IN a
distant city who na@ knny ba bs shond
under no circumstances be made public; and al
though (naving comparatively little material TO
work with he did not succeed in discovering the
system upon which the ciphers were constructed,
and never sent single translation until after the
same thing bad been translated IN the ofhce MS
work had nevertheless considerable value, as cor
roboratlng the results attained by Others before
they had reached the point where their work proved
Finally, 1 committed large number of the dis
patches to Mr.. John K u. Hassard, chief OF LIE
TRIBUNE staff, and a serious and determined effort
for their translation was fairly begun. Shortly
afterward Colonel William NJ Grosvenor, also of
The TRIBUNE staff, who had become greatly inter-
ested in the specimen dispatches thrown out, asked
for a chance at the same work, and a considerable
number of the dispatches were contided to him.
These gentlemen at first worked independently of
each other, and without communication. For a time
both groped blindly. II not hopelessy. IN What
About the same date each began to get glimmerings
of the system which the double cipher was con-
compared notes. Mr.. Hassard had found two trans
position keys and was just finishing third. while
Colonel t mao the rest wsr fnd
much more rapidly. The last was discovered by
both gentlemen on the same evening. the one work
ing at Litchteld, Conn.,, the other at Engiewood,
Nj Each FASTENED to transmit the key to me, and
the two letters came upon my table the next day
within an hour of each other.
A dictionary cipher baffieu research much longer
Its character easily determined In the Office,
but the dictionary on which IT was constructed
at last demonstrated that the dictionary in ques-
ton must be one of the editions Of Webster for
or two words occurred in of the dispatches
sent IN this cipher which were not found IN any of
the modern English dictionaries, excepting Web
ster's. Mr.. Isaac n. Ford, of The TRIBUNE Staff,
had meantime laboriously gone through forty
fifty dictionaries of all sorts and sizes, omftng,
luckily, the very one which had at first been sus-
pected for the reason that it happened to be the
only one not the shelves of the downtown book
store where these searches made. Just as the
hnut was narrowed down to this particular diction
airy, the mathematical professor telegraphed that
this dictionary the basis of the key, and in
twenty-four hours the clphers 1t contained were
locked.
After the main work had been done, number of
dispatches among local politicians at the South APP
parently of minor Importance, sent in cIphers of
different character from any previously translated,
attacked by Mr.. Hassard. Among these
the double number and the double letter ciphers.
had intrusted in all about 400 dispatches to Mr..
finished their abors only three of that whole colec
ton remained untranslated. These are in clphers
IF which there no other examples, and they
have not yet been mastered.
Valuable and was rendered by many of the
younger gentlemen in the office, and as the hunt
became keener almost the entire Staff took part IN
it. The credit of translation, however, belongs alb
soiutely to Mr.. Hassard and Colonel Grosvenor
They received no assistance from any outside quar-
ter. excepting from the mathematical professor
before mentioned. and received from him no trans
lation whatever, and important cew, until after
they had discovered IL themselves. w.R.
Tribune Office January Ia, 1879.