Thomas Jefferson's Letter To The Danbury Baptists

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Jefferson replied back saying that the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause would protect them from the states’ favoritism. Jefferson said in his letter that “I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties”(Jefferson). This letter was one of the first instances that the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause were put into to real life use. Not just in a Constitution. The Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause were contradicting to each other and the intents were not totally clear. This allowed different interpretations of the same document to form. These two interpretations…show more content…
This phrase originally came from Roger Williams in his book The Bloody Tenent of Persecution. Jefferson was Secretary of State at the time and was writing to the American people about how religion and the the government should be totally separated and not involved with each other. But the ironic part is that Thomas Jefferson ended his letter to the Baptists with a prayer. He says “I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem” (Jefferson). This completely contradicts the part of the letter saying that the government cannot prefer a religion and that the church cannot interfere with the way the state runs itself. This prayer in the poem can show people, living hundreds of years later, how Thomas Jefferson felt toward the subject of religion. He like many other men who signed the Constitution expressed there personal beliefs after the Free Exercise Clause and Establishment Clause were written. Many states still chose state religions even though this was

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