Jefferson
Jefferson had little trouble with Barruels' effort to freighten the world about Weishaupt's doctrines about a world without government. Jefferson in 1787 held that in fact such a world is best, and only population is an impediment to its deployment:
"Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree, and in our states in a great one. 3. Under governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the 1st. condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has it's evils too: the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem. Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical." - Jefferson to James Madison, January 30, 1787[1]
In PTJ, 11:92-3. Letterpress copy available online from the Library of Congress from Monticello/Jefferson.
Compare also:
"for I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."[1]
Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Monticello, September 23, 1800. PTJ 32:168 from Monticello/Jefferson
How interesting therefore how close Jefferson came to joining an Illuminist organization -- the Friends of the Blacks -- an anti-slavery group but he sadly turned down Brissot's offer due to the delicacy of the political issue in the USA:
1788 February 11. (to Brissot de Warville). "I am very sensible of the honour you propose to me of becoming a member of the society for the abolition of the slave trade. You know that nobody wishes more ardently to see an abolition not only of the trade but of the condition of slavery: and certainly nobody will be more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object. But the influence and information of the friends to this proposition in France will be far above the need of my association. I am here as a public servant; and those whom I serve having never yet been able to give their voice against this practice, it is decent for me to avoid too public a demonstration of my wishes to see it abolished. Without serving the cause here, it might render me less able to serve it beyond the water. I trust you will be sensible of the prudence of those motives therefore which govern my conduct on this occasion, and be assured of my wishes for the success of your undertaking."
Looney, J. Jefferson, ed. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004-. 3 vols. Cumulative index available on Monticello website. 12:557-558. Source: Monticello/Jefferson