 In 1848, the tricolor was present in Focşani and Râmnicu Sărat (on opposite sides of the principalities’ border) during demonstrations of fraternity held by Moldavians and Wallachians, while in 1857, around the time of the Moldavian "Ad hoc Divan", the civilian population adopted the tricolor as a symbol of union, a fact observed by Count Alexandre Walewski, French foreign minister.Also that year, the minister of foreign affairs of the Wallachian provisional government assured the extraordinary envoy of the Porte, Suleiman Pasha, that the flag's three colors had existed "for a long time; our ancestors bore them on their standard and their flags.So they are not a borrowing or an imitation from the present or a threat for the future".