October 19, 1806

Easton’s Defense

St. Louis Louisiana 1st Decr. 1806.—

Sir [Thomas Jefferson],

It is fortunate for me however that the Books & Records of Soulard have been personally inspected by Captains Lewis & Clark, who will be the faithful messengers of their State & condition, and that they contain innumerable alterations & forgeries!— added to this the principal deputy Surveyor (than whom a more honest Man liveth not) has reported them officially as “evidence only of fraud and deceit,” So that instead of the “falshood of my report” the truth of it will be established, to the exclusion of the Interest made in favor of the “amiable and Chaste Soulard.”—

R: Easton^[1]Rufus Easton to Thomas Jefferson, 1 December 1806, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-4613.

In 1805, Rufus Easton (1774–1834) was a Territorial Judge and the first Postmaster of St. Louis. He informed Jefferson of Wilkinson’s involvement in the Burr Conspiracy and became a political target of the dubious general. For more, see “Rufus Easton” at Wikipedia.

Wilkinson’s Attack

In his letter to Thomas Jefferson, Easton includes a letter from James Wilkinson to James Gallatin, U.S. Attorney General, part of which reads:

St. Louis Octr. 19th. 1805

[James Gallatin]

We are informed that a Young Gentleman (Mr. Carr) whom you have appointed Agent to investigate land claims in this Territory, has exhibited publicly, the Copy of an anonymous letter, said to be transmitted by you to him, in which Mr. Anthony Soulard the Surveyor of this Territory is charged with antedating land Concessions, & even with the forgery of names. The falshood of this report can only be equalled by its malevolence, nor can it be Justified or extenuated, because the circumstances to which this letter relates, has been repeatedly investigated to the honor of Mr. Soulard, and because we have found him one of the most attentive circumspect officers of our acquaintance whose conduct public and private is marked by a degree of chastity to excite admiration! and beleive him utterly incapable of doing a wilfull wrong.—

[James Wilkinson, as copied by Rufus Easton]^[2]Ibid.

William C. Carr (1783–1851) arrived in St. Louis in 1804 and soon voiced disdain for its French culture and James Wilkinson. The U.S. Attorney General asked the young lawyer to investigate cases of fraud in the Spanish land-claims controversy.^[3](William E. Foley, Missouri Encyclopedia, missouriencyclopedia.org/people/carr-william-c accessed 16 February 2026. For more on Easton and the captain’s audit of Soulard’s ledger, see November 29, 1806. These Spanish land-claims squabbles left the young American Government with a complex problem that would carry through the administrations of Meriwether Lewis (Upper Louisiana Governor 1806–1809) and William Clark (Missouri Territorial Governor 1813–1820).^[4]For more see Steven E. Weible, It was not Quick and it was not Simple: The Saga of Private Land Claims in Missouri, missourisurveyor.org/images/1185/document/itwasnotquick-ed1_671.pdf accessed 16 … Continue reading