Equality

"America's founders knew that, while human beings are equal in some key respects, they are not equal in every respect. People have equal natural rights, but they have unequal virtues, talents, and dispositions. As James Wilson concluded “there is, and it is fit for the great purposes of society that there should be, great inequality among men.” This inequality of talents does not denigrate the natural equality of rights. Where people are equal, it is just to treat them the same; by contrast, where they are different, it is unjust to treat them the same." Heritage Foundation

James Madison argued in Federalist No. 10, "The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results." Freedom, Madison understood, inevitably brings unequal income and wealth.

[[A]ll are subject by nature to equal laws of morality, and in society have a right to equal laws for their government, yet no two men are perfectly equal in person, property, understanding, activity, and virtue, or ever can be made so by any power less than that which created them . . . all are subject by nature to equal laws of morality, and in society have a right to equal laws for their government.
~ John Adams