Saverio Fava

Francesco Saverio Fava was born in Salerno in 1832 and studied law in Naples. He began in the Bourbon consular service, lost his appointment during unification, and entered the new Italian service after a period out of office. His subsequent career included Bern, The Hague, and Constantinople, followed by more than a decade in Bucharest. He reached Washington in 1881 and remained Italy’s representative there for twenty years. ¹

The lynching of Italians in New Orleans in March 1891 caused the gravest rupture of his American posting. On March 31, Fava informed Secretary of State James G. Blaine that Rome had ordered him home. His note demanded criminal proceedings and compensation and challenged Washington’s inability to secure redress through the federal system. He left legation secretary Guglielmo Imperiali in charge. ²

Relations were restored in April 1892 after the United States offered an indemnity of 125,000 francs for the victims’ families. Imperiali formally accepted the settlement under instructions from Rome, pending Fava’s return. ³

Fava became Italy’s first ambassador to the United States when the mission was raised in rank in 1893. He supported organized assistance for Italian immigrants and favored agricultural settlement, but the New York assistance bureau encountered American opposition and closed at the beginning of 1900. Appointed a senator in 1898, he retired from Washington in 1901 and died in Rome in 1913. ¹