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