Often Madison wrote to his college friend, William Bradford, and spoke of the religious persecution he was seeing, in one letter stating,” That diabolical, hell-conceived principle of persecution rages among some. . . . There are at this time in the adjacent county not less than five or six well meaning men in close jail for publishing their religious sentiments, which in the main are very orthodox. . . . So I must beg you to . . . pray for liberty of conscience for all.” (Wadman, p._) Madison’s views on religious tolerance can be seen especially in the drafting of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights and constitution. In 1776, during Virginia’s convention to frame their Declaration of Rights and constitution, George Mason drafted the constitution
