"The hero lies still, while the dew-drooping willows, Like fond weeping mourners, lean over his grave. The lightnings may flash and the loud cannon rattle, He heeds not, he hears not, he's free from all pain; He sleeps his last sleep, he has fought his last battle, No sound can awake him to glory again!"
He was buried at Waxhaw Church, Lancaster county, South Carolina, just across the Catawba river from his Tivoli plantation. The following modest and truthful inscription in his tomb is said to be from the pen of his friend, Governor Gaston, of South Carolina:
IN THIS GRAVE ARE DEPOSITED THE REMAINS OF WILLIAM R. DAVIE, THE SOLDIER, JURIST, STATESMAN, AND PATRIOT. IN THE GLORIOUS WAR FOR AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE HE FOUGHT AMONG THE FOREMOST OF THE BRAVE. AS AN ADVOCATE AT THE BAR, HE WAS DILIGENT, SAGACIOUS, ZEALOUS, INCORRUPTIBLY HONEST, OF COMMANDING ELOQUENCE. IN THE LEGISLATIVE HALL HE HAD NO SUPERIOR IN ENLARGED VISION AND PROFOUND PLANS OF POLICY. SINGLE IN HIS ENDS, VARIED IN HIS MEANS, INDEFATIGABLE IN HIS EXERTIONS. REPRESENTING HIS NATION IN AN IMPORTANT EMBASSY, HE EVINCED HIS CHARACTERISTIC DEVOTION TO HER INTERESTS AND MANIFESTED A PECULIAR FITNESS FOR DIPLOMACY. POLISHED IN MANNERS, FIRM IN ACTION, CANDID WITHOUT IMPRUDENCE, WISE ABOVE DECEIT. A TRUE LOVER OF HIS COUNTRY, ALWAYS PREFERRING THE PEOPLE'S GOOD TO THE PEOPLE'S FAVOR. THOUGH HE DISDAINED TO FAWN FOR OFFICE, HE FILLED MOST OF THE STATIONS TO WHICH AMBITION MIGHT ASPIRE, AND DECLINING NO PUBLIC TRUST, ENNOBLED WHATEVER HE ACCEPTED BY TRUE DIGNITY AND TALENT, WHICH HE BROUGHT INTO THE DISCHARGE OF ITS FUNCTIONS. A GREAT MAN IN AN AGE OF GREAT MEN. IN LIFE HE WAS ADMIRED AND BELOVED BY THE VIRTUOUS AND THE WISE, IN DEATH HE HAS SILENCED CALUMNY AND CAUSED ENVY TO MOURN. HE WAS BORN IN EDINBURGH,[1] 1756, AND DIED IN SOUTH CAROLINA IN 1820.
The foregoing is the main body and more strictly biographical part of an address delivered by Judge Clark, July 4th, 1892, at the celebration of the battle of Guilford Court House, on the battle-field.
Davie's life has been written more at length by Prof. Fordyce M. Hubbard and published in _Sparks' American Biography_; but I have used Judge Clark's sketch, and have slightly abbreviated it to suit the scope of my purpose.