Florida And Texas

: From The Earth To The Moon

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 s ot 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.