Analysis Of Thomas Jefferson's Letter To The Danbury Baptists

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When it comes to the history of the United States and how it became the free country that it is today, there are a few things that come to mind instantly such as The Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, The Constitution, and a few others; one of the other important documents that isn’t as often thought about is the letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists back in 1802 regarding the separation of The Church and the state. All of these documents played their own part in the foundation of the country we now know today as The United States of America, or The Land of the Free. This paper will be used to compare a few of these documents as well as what the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution …show more content…

Based on the evidence we can gather about the personal beliefs of some of the men who signed these documents, Thomas Jefferson for one, always believed that the two should be separate to protect the natural rights of people, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. One of the main purposes of the Declaration of Independence was to protect the colonists by stating that if they felt that the government was not protecting their rights, then they would be able to govern themselves. Just this statement alone shows that the signers of this specific document believed that the two should be separate or at least leave it up to the colonists to decide, but their stance is fairly straight forward.
I believe that it is important to know that of these three documents, The Declaration of Independence came first because it was what truly established that the colonies were independent from Great Britain and that King George no longer had any power over them. Matthew 22:21 says, “They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” speaking on how the church and state should remain separate as the state has no place standing between a citizen and their