(Vol. ix., p. 10.)
The following is all the information which I have been able to collect
respecting the present possessor of the title of Fairfax of Cameron, in
answer to the third Query of W. H. M. It gives me pleasure to communicate
it.
The Lords Fairfax have been for several generations natives of the United
States. The present possessor of the title is not so called, but is known
as _Mr._ Fairfax. He resides at present in Suter County, California. His
Christian names are George William.
The gentleman who bore the title at the commencement of the present
century, was a zealous member of the republican (now called democratic)
party.
The Fairfax family, at one time, owned all that portion of Virginia called
the Northern Neck, lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers.
So much for the _third_ Query. I beg leave to add a few remarks suggested
by the _fifth_.
The _citizens_ of the United States are not called _subjects_ of the United
States, and for the same reason that your excellent Queen is not called a
subject of Great Britain. Native citizens take no oath of citizenship,
expressly or _impliedly_, whatever the latter word may mean. Foreigners,
who become naturalised, do not renounce allegiance to the sovereign of
Great Britain more "pointedly" than to any other sovereign. Every one
renounces his allegiance to the potentate or power under whose sway he was
born: the Englishman to the King (or Queen) of Great Britain, the Chinese
to the Emperor of China, the Swiss to the republic of Switzerland, and so
of others.
W. H. M. says that the existence of the peers of Scotland "is denial of the
first proposition in the constitution of" the United States. If W. H. M.
will turn to this constitution, he will find that he has confounded the
Declaration of Independence with it.
Foreigners, on becoming naturalised, have to renounce their titles of
nobility; but I know of nothing to prevent a native American citizen from
being called Lord, as well as Mr. or Esq. As above mentioned, a Lord
Fairfax was so called twenty-six years after our Independence; and Lord
Stirling, who was a Major-General in the American army of the Revolution,
was always so styled by his cotemporaries, and addressed by them as "My
Lord" and "Your Lordship."
Some farther information upon this subject has been promised to me.