First Things RSS Feed - Philip J. Costopoulos https://www.firstthings.com/author/philip-j-costopoulos en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:53:04 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/philip-j-costopoulos 60 Jefferson, Adams, and the Natural Aristocracy https://www.firstthings.com/article/1990/05/jefferson-adams-and-the-natural-aristocracy https://www.firstthings.com/article/1990/05/jefferson-adams-and-the-natural-aristocracy Tue, 01 May 1990 00:00:00 -0400 Starting from a common premise and a shared commitment to republicanism, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams arrived at widely divergent conclusions about the problem of aristocracy. As good republicans, both men despised hereditary nobility. But both also affirmed that there exist always and everywhere a naturally superior few who necessarily play a key role in politics–even, and perhaps especially, the politics of democratic republics. Here their ways parted. Jefferson was eager to seek out the “natural aristoi” and cultivate them for public service. Adams regarded their appearance and rise as inevitable; far from wishing to recruit them into public office, he feared their influence and sought doggedly to straiten it within the confines of a senate in a modernized version of the classical mixed regime.

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