Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-03
AN AMERICAN LORD.

A Simple American Citizen. but Entitled
to a Seat in the English House of
Lords.
The New York World of Sunday last
prints a cut of crest, cornet, arms and
motto of John Cantee Fairfax, of North
amptOn, Md, and gives the following
sketch of his family:
Ninety-nine per cent. of the American
shoddies who use coat armor have not a
Yestige of right to their bogus heraldic
bearings. But there is one per cent. of our
citizens, perhaps less, who can lawfully
bear them. Among those who have the
highest heraldic authority to do so is a
simple American village doctor, and he
resides at Northampton, Brandensburg,
Prince George county, Md. In the little
country place where he lives he is known
by all his fellOw-tOwnsmen as doc" Fair
fax. He puts on no airs, does not wear
frills or rutileS, has not vestige of her.
aldry around his house, and once a year
records his vote for the straight Demo-
cratic ticket. Should he, however, think
fit to take his walks abroad from North
amptOn, Md, and find his way to Great
Britain, he would be warmly welcomed as
an hOnOred guest at the castle and
abbevs of the nOblest English families.
Even Windsor Castle and Osborn
would open their doors to him, and the
%
celTe him as one of themselves. This
honest, upright and GOd-tearing Ameri-
can Democrat has had his name recorded
by OfdciOuS kings-at-Arms and Heralds
in their published Peerages as the Right
Hon. John COntee Fairfax, NJ. D.. EleY-
enth Baron Fairfax of Cameron" He
could, if he chose, be sworn in whenever
he pleased, as an English peer in the
House of Lords at Westminster. But
doc Fairfax, like his brother and
many Of his predecessors in his baronial
title, have been cOntented with American
institutions and democratic civilization,
believing that the United States were
good enough for them. 1t is in the Fair
fax blood to believe in political freedom
and principles OF democracy. The Fair
faxes, although one of the Oldest York
shire families of aristOcratic lineage. have
done good service for liberty, equality
and fraternity. The third Baron Fairfax
fought with Cromwell, even commanded
the army of Un2 Commonwealth, and di-
rectly assisted in Jn6 overthrow of the
tyrant, Charles Stuart, whose life-blood
stained the headsman's block in front o.
w Whitehall Palace. His descendant.
Thomas, the sixth Baron and dear old
Ih2caeray's Edmond" came &c Virginia
in the eighteenth century, after giving up
his estates In England to his younger
brother, Robert. Since that time the
Lords Fairfax have always been Amer
lean citizens, and one of them, as every
public schOOlbOy knows, was the friend
of Washington, and did his nOblest in the
Revolution to rid our country of the
British flag. The English heraldry books
tell US a good deal about "DOc" Fairfax
and his brother, the tenth Baron,
Citizen Charles Snowden Fairfax, who
was for some time a lawyer at Cincinnati,
o. Then he was Clerk of the Supre me
Court of California, which Sir Bernard
Burke Sagely remarks is "Of high posi-
ton and responsibility in the United
States" Ulster King-at-Arms states fur
ther that Baron Charles died in 1869 at
Baltimore, and that he was at one period
''elected Speaker of the House Of Repre-
sentatives of the State of Alcaldi," wher-
ever that may be. There is one story,
however, about this brave, heightened.
chivalrOus aud truly noble man that Sir
Bernard does not tell. 1t is how Charlie
Fairfax, as he was known among the Cal
ifOrnia argOnaut boys, nearly lost his life
at the hands of a miserable skulking
hound and gambler, who ''gOt the drop on
him" for some fancied wrong. and not as
an honest gentleman in self-defense when
his life was in danger. Staggering, reel
ing like a drunken man, and with bullet
in his body, Charlie Fairfax managed to
reach for his revolver and then he had
''drop number two" and this time it was
on the Would-be assassin. Slowly he raised
himself to his full height, and with the
glistening barrel covering the scoundrePs
head, he said: "YOu wretch! Your life
is in nv hands. Why did you do thisT
Butt forgive you, and 1 spare you for
the sake of your wife and your innocent
children" Then he fired the deadly
weapon in the air, dropped backwards
senseless and was on a sick bed for many
long, weary day afterwards. This was
the act of an American citizen who had
repudiated aristOcracy, and it should fur
nish a lesson to our dudish prigs and
wOuld-be heraldic snObOcrats, most Of
whom, as the old play gives it, initiate,
mOnkey-like, the vices of the aristOcrats
and none of their few redeeming virtues.
Citizen doc" Fairfax's heraldic bearings
are gwen as follows in the British peer
ages: ARMS, 'Or three bars gemelles
gules surmOunted of lion rampant sable.'
Crest, "a lion PEASANT guardant sable.'
Supporters, Dexter a lion guardant sable,
sinister a bay hOrse.'' The Fairfax
motto, "Fare, Fac" a pun ON the name
meaning "speak. dO,' it is to be hoped,
will be the watchwords for the modern
patriotic English FairfaXes to 'Ispeak and
do their best to assist in founding MAJ
Zini's fond ideal of the coming "Republic
of the United States of Europe" includ-
ing England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales
on q firmly dpnOora tic haciS IA i,,o