must declare, that after the most calm and impartial
deliberation, I am determined not to leave my country while there is any
prospect of defending it."[483:A]

Dejection and alarm vanished under his eloquence, and at the conclusion
of his address every man seemed to say, "Let us march against the
enemy!" A patriotic discourse was delivered by him on the 17th of
August, 1755, before Captain Overton's company of Independent
Volunteers, the first volunteer company raised in Virginia after
Braddock's defeat. In a note appended to this discourse, Davies said:
"As a remarkable instance of this, I may point out to the public that
heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has
hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service to
his country."[483:B]

It is probable that Patrick Henry caught the spark of eloquence from
Davies, as in his early youth, and in after years, he often heard him
preach. They were alike gifted with a profound sensibility. Henry always
remarked that Mr. Davies was "the greatest orator he had ever heard."
Presbyterianism steadily advanced in Virginia under the auspices of
Davies and his successors, particularly Graham, Smith, Waddell, "the
blind preacher" of Wirt's "British Spy," and Brown.

The Rev. James Waddell, a Presbyterian minister, was born in the North
of Ireland, in July, 1739, as is believed. He was brought over in his
infancy by his parents to America; they settled in the southeastern part
of Pennsylvania, on White-clay Creek. James was sent to school at
Nottingham to Dr. Finley, afterwards president of the College of New
Jersey. In the school young Waddell made such proficiency in his studies
as to become an assistant teacher; and Dr. Benjamin Rush, the signer of
the Declaration of Independence, recited lessons to him there. He
devoted his attention chiefly to the classics, in which he became very
well versed. He was afterwards an assistant to the elder Smith, father
of the Rev. John Blair Smith, president of Hampden Sidney College,
Virginia, and of the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, president of the
College of New Jersey. Waddell, intending to pursue the vocation of a
teacher, and to settle with that view at Charleston, in South Carolina,
set out for the South. In passing through Virginia he met with the
celebrated preacher, Davies, and that incident gave a different turn to
his life. Shortly after, he became an assistant to the Rev. Mr. Todd in
his