It was in these years that the two men discussed "natural aristocracy."

Thomas Jefferson spoke of a government run by a virtuous natural aristocracy, selected for its skills, not its genealogy.

He said the framers of the Constitution saw the Federal judiciary as a "natural aristocracy, in their words, of ability rather than wealth."

But no less than Thomas Jefferson, Franklin believed in the idea of a natural aristocracy, and well understood where he was positioned within that hierarchy.

He added: "It's a Jeffersonian democracy, taking the natural aristocracy, as you were.

He considered groupings on a par with hierarchies, which led to a kind of natural elitism and natural aristocracy.

Even Mum believes that we are from some natural aristocracy.

Above all, the executive magistrate must have sufficient power to defend himself, and thus the people, from all the "enterprises" of the natural aristocracy.

Jefferson's views about a natural aristocracy versus an inherited one still ring true.

As he wrote John Adams in 1813: "I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men.