The Night James Madison Froze for Your Religious Freedom

A hijacked ship, a runaway congregation, jailed Baptist preachers, and a snowy churchyard in Madison County, Virginia By: Robert W. Malone, MD, MS, and Jill Glasspool Malone, PhD In January 1789, snow covered the ground around a plain wooden church at the foot of the Blue Ridge. Inside, a German-speaking Lutheran congregation finished its worship service. Two fiddlers played afterward, because this congregation loved music. Then the whole crowd went outside to hear two young Virginians argue about the new Constitution. One was James Madison, age thirty-seven. The other was James Monroe, age thirty. Both would later become President. That...