 
in 1801 a new period opened in the history of aristocracy in america with 
the accession of the jeffersonian republicans to power. 
the event was hailed by the republicans as a return to the principles for 
which the war for independence had been fought. 
"the revolution of 1776 is complete" was their exultant cry. 
but the federalists stood aghast at the disaster which they believed had 
befallen the country. 
theodore dwight of connecticut asserted... that the great object of 
democracy was "to destroy every trace of civilization in the world, and force 
mankind back into a savage state... 
we have a country governed by blockheads and knaves..." 
cabot, a massachusetts leader, declared that by democracy was meant "the 
government of the worst." 
both hamilton and rufus king apprehended "a bloody anarchy" as the 
consequence of the leveling tendencies of the times... 
but jeffersonian democracy did not, as a matter of fact, cause the doom of 
the caste principle in american society and government. 
on the contrary, it perpetuated it in a more enlightened and less offensive 
form... it is clear that political power had shifted from a mercantile 
aristocracy built on english models to a landed aristocracy... 
the great planters of the south supplied the atmosphere of gentility in 
which the federal administration at washington moved... the presidency for six 
administrations fell, almost as a matter of right, to a line of succession 
known as the "virginia dynasty." 
from the viewpoint of subsequent progress toward democracy, "jeffersonian 
aristocracy" seems the appropriate term to employ, for the mass of the people 
still continued very largely as spectators of events. 
the philosophical outlook of the new aristocracy was, to be sure, quite 
different from the old... the former prided itself as functioning as the 
guardian and protector of the masses... 
