Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/121

 JOHN ADAMS 91 the division into the two great parties which have remained to this day in American politics the one known as federalist, afterward as whig, then as republican; the other known at first as republican and afterward as democratic. John Adams was by his mental and moral constitution a federalist. He believed in strong government. To the opposite party he seemed much less a democrat than an aristocrat. In one of his essays he pro voked great popular wrath by using the phrase &quot;the well-born.&quot; He knew very well that in point of hereditary capacity and advantages men are not equal and never will be. His notion of democratic equality meant that all men should have equal rights in the eye of the law. There was nothing of the communist or leveller about him. He be lieved in the rightful existence of a governing class, which ought to be kept at the head of affairs ; and he was supposed, probably with some truth, to have a predilection for etiquette, titles, gentlemen-in- waiting, and such things. Such views did not make him an aristocrat in the true sense of the word, for in nowise did he believe that the right to a place in the governing class should be heritable; it was something to be won by personal merit, and should not be withheld by any artificial enactments from the lowliest of men, to whom the chance of an illus trious career ought to be just as much open as to &quot;the well-born.&quot;