George W. Snyder of Fredericktown, Maryland, wrote of this book to President George Washington, August 22, 1798:
“To His Excellency George Washington.
Sir,—You will, I hope, not think it a presumption in a stranger, whose name, perhaps never reached your ears, to address himself to you, the Commanding General of a great Nation …
Our present time pregnant with the most shocking events and calamities, threatens ruin to our liberty and government.
The most secret plans are in agitation; plans calculated to ensnare the unwary, to attract the gay irreligious, and to entice even the well-disposed to combine in the general machine for overturning all government and all religion.
It was some time since that a book fell into my hands, entitled ‘Proofs of a Conspiracy, &c. by John Robison,’ which gives a full account of a Society of Free Masons, that distinguishes itself by the name of ‘Illuminati,’
whose plan is to overthrow all government and all religion, even natural; and who endeavor to eradicate every idea of a Supreme Being, and distinguish man from beast by his shape only.
A thought suggested itself to me, that some of the Lodges in the United States might have caught the infection, and might co-operate with the Illuminati or the Jacobin Club in France …
I send you the ‘Proof of a Conspiracy,’ &c. which I doubt not, will … afford you matter for a train of ideas, that may operate to our national felicity.”