These incidents, better than any elaborate description, illustrate the character of the man.  He was a lineal descendant of the great Fairfax family which has figured so conspicuously in the history of England and of Virginia.  He was its tenth Baron in a direct line.  But notwithstanding the rank of his family he was a republican in his convictions.  He loved his country and its institutions.  He was himself more noble than his title.  He came East to attend the National Democratic Convention in 1868 at the head of the delegates from California.  After the Convention, he spent some months among his friends and relatives at the old family residence in Maryland.  At this time the seeds of consumption, which had long been lurking in his system, began to be developed, and he was taken down with a severe illness which proved fatal.  He became so ill as to be unable to walk, and was conveyed to Baltimore to procure the best medical attendance; and there he died on the 4th of April, 1869, in the arms of his devoted wife, who had come from California to be with him in his last hours.  His body was brought to Washington and interred within sight of the Capitol, near Hock Creek Church, in which his ancestors had worshipped.

I have mentioned that when Fairfax was stabbed by Lee he fell into the arms of Mr. Samuel B. Smith.  This gentleman I had known slightly before my difficulty with Judge Barbour; but the intimacy which sprung up between Fairfax and myself, after that affair, brought me more in contact with Mr. Smith, who was his constant companion.  Mr. Smith came to California from New Jersey in 1849, and passed through some stirring scenes during that and the following year.  He came with Mr. John S. Hagar, who was afterwards State Senator, District Judge, and United States Senator, and was engaged with him in the mines in the winter of 1849-’50.  In 1850 he settled in Sutter County; and in the fall of 1852 was elected State Senator from that county.  Having become more intimately acquainted with him after he was elected Senator, I requested him to introduce a bill into the Legislature, revising and amending the one which I had originally drawn concerning the courts and judicial officers of the State; and he cheerfully consented to do so, and took great interest in securing its passage.  Indeed, it was through his influence that the bill became a law.  Many circumstances threw us together after that, and I learned to appreciate his manly character, his generous disposition, and his great devotion to his friends.  Finally, in the fall of 1854, we agreed to form a partnership after my return from the Eastern States, which I then proposed to visit.  After the Barbour affair the course of my professional life was much the same as that of any other lawyer.  My business was large and I gave to it my unremitting attention.  In 1854 I determined to go East to see my parents and brothers and sisters, who had never been out of my mind a single day since I left them in 1849.  Accordingly,