WHEN Burr ceased to be Vice-President of the United States, March 4, 1805, he had already made himself intimate with every element of conspiracy that could be drawn within his reach. The list of his connections might have startled Jefferson, if the President’s easy optimism had not been proof to fears. In London, Burr’s friend Colonel Williamson confided his plans to Pitt and Lord Melville. At Washington the British minister, Merry, wrote to Lord Mulgrave in support of Williamson’s negotiation. The creole deputies from New Orleans were Burr’s friends, and Derbigny was acquainted with “certain projects” he entertained. General Wilkinson, governor of the Louisiana Territory, whose headquarters were at St. Louis, closely attached to Burr almost from childhood, stood ready for any scheme that promised to gratify inordinate ambition. James Brown, Secretary of the Territory, was Burr’s creature. Judge Prevost, of the Superior Court at New Orleans, was Burr’s stepson. Jonathan Dayton, whose term as senator ended the same day with Burr’s vice-presidency, shared and perhaps suggested the “projects.” John Smith, the senator from Ohio, was under the influence of Burr and Dayton. John Adair of Kentucky was in Wilkinson’s confidence. The Swartwouts in New York, with the “little band” who made Burr their idol, stood ready to follow him wherever he might lead. In South Carolina Joseph Allston, the husband of Theodosia Burr, might be induced to aid his father-in-law; and Allston was supposed to be the richest planter in the South, worth a million of dollars in slaves and plantations. The task of uniting these influences and at a given moment raising the standard of a new empire in the Mississippi Valley seemed to an intriguer of Burr’s metal not only feasible, but certain of success.