He attended our conference and the preaching, and appeared interested in the revival scenes; but he would exclaim, “I do not like the government.” There seemed to be a conflict in his own mind: he believed the work to be of God—that souls were really converted; and yet he was so strongly prejudiced against our Church government that he could not see how heaven had set its seal of approbation upon such measures. At this time he was an old man. He ended his days in Raleigh. In 1814 Bishop Asbury visited Raleigh again, and writes: “After all allowance for drawbacks, we cannot tell all the good that was done by our conference in Raleigh in 1811.” I have noticed the conversion of the Secretary of State. His name was William Hill. He immediately joined the Methodist Church, and was baptized by Bishop Asbury. Such was the purity of his character that amid all the changes of party he held the office of Secretary of State from 1811 till his death in 1857, a period of forty-six years. This is unparalleled. He was a class-leader and steward for many years. He was eighty-four when he died. On the 28th of February we rode to William Watters’s. He retired from the regular work in 1806, but his heart was always in it. He was now living in dignified retirement on his farm on the Virginia side of the Potomac, opposite Georgetown. He was the first traveling preacher raised up in America. Philip Gatch commenced nearly the same time. They were intimate, and in their declining years corresponded with each other. Mr. Watters was a stout man, of medium height, of very venerable and solemn appearance. Bishop Asbury and he were life-time friends. The bishop was acquainted with him before he was licensed to preach, and used to call him familiarly, “Billy Watters.” When these aged men met on this occasion they embraced and saluted each other with “a holy kiss;” and the bishop, writing of this visit in his journal, speaks of him as “my dear old friend, William Watters.” He was distinguished for humility, simplicity, and purity. Few holier ministers has the Methodist Church ever had than William Watters. I rejoice that I was permitted to hear him preach and to be his guest; to eat at his table, to sit at his fireside, to enjoy his friendship and hospitality. His house was for years a regular preaching-place on the circuit. In 1833, at the age of eighty-two, he died in holy triumph. His name will go down to the end of time bearing the honored title of _The First American Methodist Traveling Preacher_. William Watters rode with us about four miles, and then we went to Georgetown to Henry Foxall’s. On Sunday the bishop preached in Washington city, in the new chapel, and at Georgetown. On the next Saturday Hamilton Jefferson, Dr. Hall, and James Smith overtook us, and we journeyed on together. On Wednesday we reached Pipe Creek, and Bishop Asbury preached next day at the Pipe Creek Chapel. I held forth at night on Acts x, 33. Thence we proceeded to Baltimore.