Many men, after the bufferings of a stormy or a busy life, have in like manner felt the need of rest before going hence. It was thus that the Emperor Charles V., at Juste, and Wolsey, who had "sounded all the depths and shoals of honor," at Leicester Abbey, had sought to put a space of contemplation between the active duties of life and the grave. Davie's country, however, did not forget him. During the second war with Great Britain, President Madison appointed him a major-general in the United States army, and he was confirmed by the Senate, March 2d, 1813. But "time steals fire from the mind as vigor from the limbs." Though not an old man, General Davie's early campaigns had told upon him. The sword which twenty-five years before had almost leapt of itself from the scabbard was now constrained to hang idly by his side, and he declined the appointment. General Harrison (afterwards President) was appointed in his stead and fought the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813 in which Tecumseh was slain. The next year he in turn resigned and General Andrew Jackson was appointed to succeed him, and the battle of New Orleans followed on January 8, 1815. General Davie's seat at Tivoli, on the Catawba, was the resort of many of the Revolutionary characters. In their journeys by private conveyance to Virginia or the North, the custom was to arrange to spend a day or two there with him, where he kept open house for his friends, and, sitting under an immense oak, from which there was a view of miles of the Catawba, they fought over the war together or discussed the workings of the new government and the Constitution they had established. This was all the more interesting, as much of his campaigning had taken place on and around this very spot. In this connection it is interesting to state that after his retirement to Tivoli he was much sought after in drawing wills. He drew some of the most famous wills in that State--indeed, it is said, all of them in that part in which he resided, not one of which, except his own, was ever assailed. In this respect he had the fortune of Sugden (Lord Saint Leonard's), Governor Tilden, and many other famous lawyers. The contest over Governor Davie's will has just been settled by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, filed the 28th of March of this year (1892), in the case of _Bedon_ vs. _Davie_, 144 U. S., 142, a very interesting case. His correspondence and other materials for history must have been very large and very valuable. It was from his papers that the copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration of May 20th, 1775, was procured, which is known as the "Davie Copy." Unfortunately all his family papers and all the historical material which had been carefully preserved by him for publication at some future time were destroyed during Sherman's raid. The banks of the Catawba were said to have been strewn with them, and nothing of the collection now remains.