FLORIDA AND TEXAS.
One question yet remained to be decided: it was necessary to choose
a favourable 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, towards 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 downwards 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 favour of its situation.
In Texas, on the contrary, the towns are much more numerous and important.
Corpus Christi, in the county of Nuaces, 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 honour of having given birth to 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 Texians, 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 Texians; "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_ 28_th 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 endeavoured 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?"
Illustration: IT BECAME NECESSARY TO KEEP AN EYE UPON THE DEPUTIES.
"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 200 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 Texan 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, 1836, 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 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 favoured state. The rivalry will descend from state to
city, and so on downwards. Now Texas possesses _eleven_ towns within the
prescribed conditions, which will further dispute the honour 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 Texians 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 worthy
of the days of ancient Sparta.