FLORIDA AND TEXAS
One question remained yet to be decided; it was necessary to choose a
favorable spot for the experiment. According to the advice of the
Observatory of Cambridge, the gun must be fired perpendicularly to the
plane of the horizon, that is to say, toward the zenith. Now the moon
does not traverse the zenith, except in places situated between 0° and
28° of latitude. It became, then, necessary to determine exactly that
spot on the globe where the immense Columbiad should be cast.
On the 20th of October, at a general meeting of the Gun Club, Barbicane
produced a magnificent map of the United States. “Gentlemen,” said he,
in opening the discussion, “I presume that we are all agreed that this
experiment cannot and ought not to be tried anywhere but within the
limits of the soil of the Union. Now, by good fortune, certain
frontiers of the United States extend downward as far as the 28th
parallel of the north latitude. If you will cast your eye over this
map, you will see that we have at our disposal the whole of the
southern portion of Texas and Florida.”
It was finally agreed, then, that the Columbiad must be cast on the
soil of either Texas or Florida. The result, however, of this decision
was to create a rivalry entirely without precedent between the
different towns of these two States.
The 28th parallel, on reaching the American coast, traverses the
peninsula of Florida, dividing it into two nearly equal portions. Then,
plunging into the Gulf of Mexico, it subtends the arc formed by the
coast of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; then skirting Texas, off
which it cuts an angle, it continues its course over Mexico, crosses
the Sonora, Old California, and loses itself in the Pacific Ocean. It
was, therefore, only those portions of Texas and Florida which were
situated below this parallel which came within the prescribed
conditions of latitude.
Florida, in its southern part, reckons no cities of importance; it is
simply studded with forts raised against the roving Indians. One
solitary town, Tampa Town, was able to put in a claim in favor of its
situation.
In Texas, on the contrary, the towns are much more numerous and
important. Corpus Christi, in the county of Nueces, and all the cities
situated on the Rio Bravo, Laredo, Comalites, San Ignacio on the Web,
Rio Grande City on the Starr, Edinburgh in the Hidalgo, Santa Rita,
Elpanda, Brownsville in the Cameron, formed an imposing league against
the pretensions of Florida. So, scarcely was the decision known, when
the Texan and Floridan deputies arrived at Baltimore in an incredibly
short space of time. From that very moment President Barbicane and the
influential members of the Gun Club were besieged day and night by
formidable claims. If seven cities of Greece contended for the honor of
having given birth to a Homer, here were two entire States threatening
to come to blows about the question of a cannon.
The rival parties promenaded the streets with arms in their hands; and
at every occasion of their meeting a collision was to be apprehended
which might have been attended with disastrous results. Happily the
prudence and address of President Barbicane averted the danger. These
personal demonstrations found a division in the newspapers of the
different States. The New York _Herald_ and the _Tribune_ supported
Texas, while the _Times_ and the _American Review_ espoused the cause
of the Floridan deputies. The members of the Gun Club could not decide
to which to give the preference.
Texas produced its array of twenty-six counties; Florida replied that
twelve counties were better than twenty-six in a country only one-sixth
part of the size.
Texas plumed itself upon its 330,000 natives; Florida, with a far
smaller territory, boasted of being much more densely populated with
56,000.
The Texans, through the columns of the _Herald_ claimed that some
regard should be had to a State which grew the best cotton in all
America, produced the best green oak for the service of the navy, and
contained the finest oil, besides iron mines, in which the yield was
fifty per cent. of pure metal.
To this the _American Review_ replied that the soil of Florida,
although not equally rich, afforded the best conditions for the
moulding and casting of the Columbiad, consisting as it did of sand and
argillaceous earth.
“That may be all very well,” replied the Texans; “but you must first
get to this country. Now the communications with Florida are difficult,
while the coast of Texas offers the bay of Galveston, which possesses a
circumference of fourteen leagues, and is capable of containing the
navies of the entire world!”
“A pretty notion truly,” replied the papers in the interest of Florida,
“that of Galveston bay _below the 29th parallel!_ Have we not got the
bay of Espiritu Santo, opening precisely upon _the 28th degree_, and by
which ships can reach Tampa Town by direct route?”
“A fine bay; half choked with sand!”
“Choked yourselves!” returned the others.
Thus the war went on for several days, when Florida endeavored to draw
her adversary away on to fresh ground; and one morning the _Times_
hinted that, the enterprise being essentially American, it ought not to
be attempted upon other than purely American territory.
To these words Texas retorted, “American! are we not as much so as you?
Were not Texas and Florida both incorporated into the Union in 1845?”
“Undoubtedly,” replied the _Times_; “but we have belonged to the
Americans ever since 1820.”
“Yes!” returned the _Tribune_; “after having been Spaniards or English
for two hundred years, you were sold to the United States for five
million dollars!”
“Well! and why need we blush for that? Was not Louisiana bought from
Napoleon in 1803 at the price of sixteen million dollars?”
“Scandalous!” roared the Texas deputies. “A wretched little strip of
country like Florida to dare to compare itself to Texas, who, in place
of selling herself, asserted her own independence, drove out the
Mexicans in March 2, 1846, and declared herself a federal republic
after the victory gained by Samuel Houston, on the banks of the San
Jacinto, over the troops of Santa Anna!—a country, in fine, which
voluntarily annexed itself to the United States of America!”
“Yes; because it was afraid of the Mexicans!” replied Florida.
“Afraid!” From this moment the state of things became intolerable. A
sanguinary encounter seemed daily imminent between the two parties in
the streets of Baltimore. It became necessary to keep an eye upon the
deputies.
President Barbicane knew not which way to look. Notes, documents,
letters full of menaces showered down upon his house. Which side ought
he to take? As regarded the appropriation of the soil, the facility of
communication, the rapidity of transport, the claims of both States
were evenly balanced. As for political prepossessions, they had nothing
to do with the question.
This dead block had existed for some little time, when Barbicane
resolved to get rid of it all at once. He called a meeting of his
colleagues, and laid before them a proposition which, it will be seen,
was profoundly sagacious.
“On carefully considering,” he said, “what is going on now between
Florida and Texas, it is clear that the same difficulties will recur
with all the towns of the favored State. The rivalry will descend from
State to city, and so on downward. Now Texas possesses eleven towns
within the prescribed conditions, which will further dispute the honor
and create us new enemies, while Florida has only one. I go in,
therefore, for Florida and Tampa Town.”
This decision, on being made known, utterly crushed the Texan deputies.
Seized with an indescribable fury, they addressed threatening letters
to the different members of the Gun Club by name. The magistrates had
but one course to take, and they took it. They chartered a special
train, forced the Texans into it whether they would or no; and they
quitted the city with a speed of thirty miles an hour.
Quickly, however, as they were despatched, they found time to hurl one
last and bitter sarcasm at their adversaries.
Alluding to the extent of Florida, a mere peninsula confined between
two seas, they pretended that it could never sustain the shock of the
discharge, and that it would “bust up” at the very first shot.
“Very well, let it bust up!” replied the Floridans, with a brevity of
the days of ancient Sparta.