Alphabe-Thursday - The letter X

THIS IS AN   ALPHABE-THURSDAY POST

The Infamous XYZ Affair of 1797 involved coded words......

My Letter X for Jenny’s Alphabe-Thursdays is... The XYZ Affair, its code name is
    XYZ Nomenclator (nomenclators were used by royal houses throughout Europe to conceal diplomatic and personal dispatches and messages)   I'll define its meaning with a student's quest.......




      There once was a girl named, Xabiere Xalbadora who was born in Xenia, Illinois long ago. Xabiere was very concerned that her name was not very popular (beginning in X) and that her classmates felt she was inferior to them. She was determined to prove that there were plenty of exciting and important things that began with the letter X.  Her searching ended with discovery of the legendary  XYZ Affair of 1797.

     The  XYZ Affair  involved secret demands from French officials for monetary commitments from the United States. U.S. delegates in France, sent details of such discussions to Timothy Pickering, the Secretary of State. They were encoded with a number-letter nomenclator that included the following coded words and fragments:

This is the first of the coded words and fragments....

The U.S. commissioners were outraged by these proposals of what they determined was "bribery" and sent the following encoded answer:

                                 449.449.457.1193.1178.27.493.
                          
This decoded message spelled out one of America's most famous replies in all of American history......
decoded it stated:  no no not a sixpence  (they refused to be bribed)

Oh such sweet joys from making and breaking secret codes and messages....

I hope you enjoyed my offering of the xcellent- letter X and if you care to see more or post your own
go here 

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2011/09/alphabe-thursdays-letter-x.html