PLEASE ADD MORE AND CHANGE IT UP PLEASE The Constitution provided details on how a just and equitable government would operate, and the Declaration of Independence laid forth the concepts and principles that underpinned them. This act legally severed all political links between the American colonies and Great Britain. The theory of popular sovereignty, which holds that the people elect representatives to represent them and that the government exists to serve them, is founded on the Declaration of Independence. Now that the constitution was affected by the British government in some ways, the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution emphasized two key ideas from the English Bill of Rights. Where "Excessive bail ought not to be needed. Excessive fines levied, nor harsh and unusual punishments inflicted."