New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-11-24
A SOUTHERN MODEL.

work that promoted the industrial en-
ployment and utilization of the whole
people, but they have opposed all such
enterprises on public or private account.
Their reasoning was that agriculture was
the most virtuous pursuit, and that 1T was
better to buy where it was cheapest and
sell where il was dearest, and leave the
carrying trade to others. The conse-
oueuces of such doctrines were favorable
to the North because it had given them
such control of the capital and commerce
Of the Union and secured for them all
those advantages Of mechanical industry
which at last decide all wars 1t should
be regretted by every Southern man that
the same party and the same school has
again assumed control of public affairs,
when the same results of restitution and
| dependence will be perpet1ated.
That the men of the South are of the
same material with those of the North,
| with an equal capacity for any intellectual
or industrial pursuit, can not be disputed.
! The sole difference i'll the condition of the
| two sections has arisen from the baronial
idea that the powers of government should
reside in an educated class, and that pop
ular ignorance and popular dependence
are the surest guarantee of good govern
ment. The migration of Southern people
| under the sway of more liberal ideas make
them among the most progressive of our
people. The freeborn contempt for
aristocratic pretensions has impelled the
Southern States of Georgia, Tennessee
| and North Carolina to a higher degree of
industrial prosperity and general intelli-
gence than prevails in Southern States
which have been long under the control
of the aris.ocratic Democracy of the
South
Occasionally there occurs an example,
first, of the moral, mental and physical
fitness of Southern people for the pursuits
of modern progress, and at the same time
marked contrast is presented between
Southern man 50 furnished with the
means of personal usefulness and other
Southern men denied by force of sur
rounding opposition the advantages of
instruction and employment. During the
temporary OCCUPATION of a Southern vii
lage by federal troops little boy was
somehow involved in the movements of a
federal company. He was taken care of
until an opportunity should be afforded
for restoration to his parents, but never
having been reclaimed was taken North.
There he was sent to school and educated
as practical engineer Having preserved
o knowledge of his name and family, he
was recently delighted to recognize his
brother, who was subordinate play actor.
These two young men, in all respects
equal, have fallen upon very different
pursuits They mark the distinction of
systems,
We offer another signal illustration of |
the effect upon Southern youth of open
ing to them some other career than
politics or overseeing. We do so with
sincere expression Of regret that the fate
of one destined to have been so useful |
should have proved so unfortunate:
CAPTAIN JEFF DAVIS HOWELL.
Captain Jefferson Davis Howell, who re-
Gently persisted with nearly all on board |
OF his steamer, the Pacific. was born in the |
State of mississippi and was about thirty |
years old He was brother-in Law of Je.- |
ferson Davis, the Confederate President, |
after whom he was named, and in whose
household he passed the greater part of |
his early life. Early in the civil war,
after having been short time il volun. |
teer military organization in New Or |
leans, young Howell, then lad of six
teen, obtained an appointment as mid
shpman in the Southern navy. This he
retained until the end of the war. At the |
close of the war he found himself adrift |
without money or occupation. He shipped |
as sailor before the mast in small sailing |
vessel, making voyages to Bordeaux, the |
Cape de Verde islands, Rio Janeiro and |
other places in the Atlantic On one of |
these voyages hS was injured in some evo
luton of the ship, and was in consequence
compelled to remain ashore for several |
months. In this interval, and as a means
of temporary support, Mr.. Howell obi aimed
clerkship in the mailing room of POne-
roys Democrat in this city. In the fall of |
1869 he went of to sea again This time he
shipped as Quartermaster on the Pacific |
Mail steamship Ariel on q voyage from
New York to Yokohama via the Suez
canal. At Yokohama Mr.. Howell was on
the recommendation of all of his shipmates,
promoted to the rank of third officer to fill |
a then existing vacancy in one of the Pa |
cific Mail steamers He was, after service
in this company IN various ranks, soon put |
IN command of q steamer running to the |
Sandwich Islands from San Francisco, and |
later had q steamship between San Fran.
cisco and Portland, Oregon, and finally |
drifted back to the Pacific Mail employ in |
tOmmsnd of vessel between San Fran.
cisco and the Isthmus. At this time he |
wrote to friend in New York congratulate
ing himself upon having been able to leave |
that route, on which he has since lost his |
life and his ship, "becsuse it was so danger.
Gus, and SO likely to ruin young captains |
reputation" But in some of the chan ges in |
the Pacific Nail management Captain How
ellis ship was laid up. and he went back to |
that old and dangerous trade.
This young man drifted off in the civil |
war from the ideas and associations to |
which he might otherwise have been de-
voted. A seataring career enlarged his
ideas and promoted bis personal indie
pendence. Instead of enlisting anew
under some political captain to cooperate
with the abolition and protection Democ-
racy at the North, in place of blazoning
his gallantry with the Ku Klux of Caro-
lima or Coushatta, he shipped as sailor
before the mast. There, as he lay many