rrenton Academy, and in 1789, he sponsored legislation to charter the University of North Carolina, the first public university in the United States. He served as the institution’s virtual president in its early years. For example, Davie helped select the Chapel Hill location, recruit faculty, and promote the adoption of an updated curriculum. Suspecting Federalist proclivities at the school, the General Assembly soon cut the school’s funding, but Davie later won a lawsuit that overturned the legislation.
Davie was a natural aristocrat with a polite yet slightly aloof demeanor. Archibald Murphey, the nineteenth-century North Carolina reformer, described Davie as “a tall, elegant man in his person, graceful and commanding in his manners.” He said little publicly regarding his religious beliefs, however. Although Davie never denounced his affiliation with the Presbyterian denomination, he was rumored to be a Deist, and from 1792 to 1798, he served as Grand Master of the North Carolina Masons.
Davie’s diplomatic skill played a vital role in early North Carolina and American history. Although the state legislature elected Davie governor in 1798, he did not complete his term, for in the following year, President John Adams appointed Davie to the American delegation to settle the Quasi-War with France. After an arduous voyage to Europe, Davie spent several months in Paris negotiating the Convention of 1800, which ended hostilities and reestablished normal commercial relations between the United States and France. In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Davie to negotiate a treaty with North Carolina’s remaining Tuscarora Indians. The agreement obligated the federal government to collect rent on Tuscarora land on behalf of the tribe until July 12, 1916, at which time the Tuscarora would relinquish their title to the state.
Running for public office once again in 1803, Davie soon grew disenchanted with politics and popular opinion. In particular, Davie made an unsuccessful effort to oust Democratic-Republican Congressman Willis Alston. His defeat, and the state’s grudging support for UNC, left Davie embittered. The “friends of science in other states,” he concluded, “regard the people of North Carolina as a sort of Semi-Barbarians, among whom neither learning, virtue, nor men of Science posses any Estimation.” At fifty, Davie retired from politics and moved to his Trivoli plantation near Lancaster, South Carolina.
After his wife, Sarah, died in April 1802, Davie never remarried and seemed to age prematurely. He complained that rheumatism and other aliments plagued him. He even turned down military and political appointments, such as when President James Madison, during the War of 1812, offered him a commission as a major general. Davie died in South Carolina in 1820 and was buried in the family plot at the Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Church.
Davie may well have been the most impressive North Carolinian of the Revolutionary Era, but by 1800 he was wholly out of step with his times. As a natural aristocrat, he believed that social progress occurred only when the masses were under the tutelage of an educated elite. He unsurprisingly opposed the democratic tendencies that dominated North Carolina politics, especially after Jefferson’s election as president. His contributions were not completely forgotten; in 1811, he received the first honorary doctorate to be awarded by the University of North Carolina.
Samuel A. Ashe, “William Richardson Davie,” in Ashe, ed., Biographical Dictionary of North Carolina (Greensboro, 1917); Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina 2 Vols. (Raleigh, 1907); William S. Powell, ed., Encyclopedia of North Carolina Biography (Chapel Hill, 1979-91), Blackwell P. Robinson, William R. Davie (Chapel Hill, 1957); Ruth Rosenberg, “Davie, William Richardson,” in John C. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography (New York, 1999); Louise Irby Trenholme, The Ratification of the Federal Constitution in North Carolina (New York, 1932).