Jeffersonian Democracy

One might be surprised by the fact that Thomas Jefferson had a hand in writing the US Constitution considering his advocacy of aristocracy and social stratification in a letter he wrote to John Adams.

The constitution does say that "all men are created equal," but does this really conflict with the idea of social stratification? Does the idea that all men are created equal mean that all men end up equal or should be treated equally? I don't think that that is what Jefferson believed. He believed that "there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents." He also said that "There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents." By this he means the traditional European concept of hereditary aristocracy.

I can't speak for everyone who had a hand in writing the constitution, but this seems to me to be evidence that Jefferson believed that equality of creation meant not that everyone should be treated equally, but rather that your status should be based rather on "virtue and talents" not the circumstances under which you were "created."

Jefferson considered the natural aristocracy, "the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society" and asks, "May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the most effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government?"

Too bad that's not the kind of government the United states has now.