Rufus Easton (1774-1834), a native of Connecticut and former law student of Ephraim Kirby, was a politically well-connected attorney from Rome, New York. He spent the winter of 1803-4 in Washington lobbying for an appointment, then headed west and settled in St. Louis, where he quickly became an influential and controversial figure. He was appointed postmaster at St. Louis in 1804, and TJ awarded him a recess appointment as one of the judges for the Louisiana Territory in March 1805. But unfavorable reports of Easton’s conduct and character filtered back to Washington, and by the end of 1805, TJ decided not to reappoint him. Despite the loss of TJ’s favor, Easton went on to a successful career, serving as the Missouri Territory’s delegate to Congress and as attorney general for the state of Missouri (Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989, Washington, D.C., 1989 description ends ; Kline, Burr description begins Mary-Jo Kline, ed., Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr, Princeton, 1983, 2 vols. description ends , 2:850, 918-19; Terr. Papers description begins Clarence E. Carter and John Porter Bloom, eds., The Territorial Papers of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1934-75, 28 vols. description ends , 13:74, 105, 249, 272, 307, 319-25, 368-9, 380; William E. Foley, The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood [Columbia, Mo., 1989], 151-2, 157, 161, 165-8, 174, 180; RS description begins J. Jefferson Looney and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Princeton, 2004- , 11 vols. description ends , 7:365, 366n; Easton to TJ, 17 Jan. 1805, 21 Feb. 1806; TJ to Joseph Anderson, 28 Dec. 1805; William Keteltas to TJ, 19 Jan. 1806; TJ to Easton, 22 Feb. 1806).