The 1700s saw Europe become all but captive to Enlightenment rationalism that openly challenged the Reformation's doctrine of man as a fallen sinner. Men, un-corrupted by society, were by nature good. Consider these five principles of Jacobism and egalitarian democracy as summarized by R. L. Dabney. No adult person can be justly barred from any privilege allowed to any other person in society except for conviction of a crime. All distinctions of 'class' or 'caste' are essentially and inevitably wicked and oppressive.
Equal rights ought to be conceded to women in every respect as to men.
Slavery in all its forms must be essentially unrighteous. Thomas Jefferson eventually imbibed some of this, as he was friendly to 'progressive' French ideas. Yet, it is indisputable, considering the Federalist Papers writers' hostility toward democracy as mob rule, and the debates in the state legislatures which ratified the constitution - Enlightenment egalitarian philosophy had little influence upon the framers of the federal republic. Our colonial founders allowed functional distinctions among men. They rejected the idea that mere distinctions necessarily led to injustice.