Comparative Analysis of the “Declaration of Independence”, the US Constitution and Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802

Running head: COMPARISON PAPER
U.S. CONSTITUTION, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, AND THOMAS
JEFFERSON’S LETTER TO THE DANBURY BAPTISTS
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Author’s Note:

1COMPARISON PAPER
As stated by Calhoun (2017), the American Constitution and its different precepts have
been subject of discussion and also the central lacuna of diverse debates over the years. Allen
and Sneff (2019) are of the viewpoint that the different features of the American Constitution
which followed the “Declaration of Independence” like the separation of religion from politics,
God from governance, its rigidity, bicameral nature and others are some of the most important
aspects of discussion regarding the same. More importantly, it had been seen that the seeds of
segregation of religion from politics were sown by Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury
Baptists in 1802 and thereby the concerned letter greatly compliments the “Declaration of
Independence” and also the US Constitution. The purpose of this paper is to undertake a
comparative analysis of the “Declaration of Independence”, the US Constitution and Thomas
Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802.
Levy (2017) is of the viewpoint that an important idea which had predominated since the
traditional times can be attributed to the fact that religion and governance go hand in hand.
Adding to this, Law (2018) has noted that this was one of the most important reasons why the
Church had played a pivotal role in the governance of the different kingdoms or the nations over
the years. For instance, the Bible clearly indicates that the Almighty God is the Sovereign and
the rulers or the kings are His representatives on earth who are required to govern their citizens
on the basis of the teachings of the God (Scherr 2018). However, this usage of this particular
practice by the rulers significantly limited their power or authority by enhancing the influence of
the Church on the important decisions made by them and often the rulers were required to take
the kind of decisions which were detrimental from the perspective of the citizens or did not
safeguard their interests (Wills 2018). In this relation, it needs to be said that the “Declaration of
Independence”, the US Constitution and Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists in