Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-04-16
DIVISION OF STATES.
A Plan to Cut Florida in Two on
the Twenty Ninth Parallel.
RNER AND HARsoR IMPROVEMENTS.
Senator Sherman and the Ohio Goyernorship
The Civil Service Reform Problem
Work Of the Commission
General Notes.

! WASHINGTON, April 15.-An unexpected
and novel proposition to divide Florida is
under discussion in that State. The desire
to divide Tennessee has often been express.
ed during the present century, the eastern
portion wishing to be segregated. Plans
for dividing Michigan have also been nu-
merous, the unnatural union between the
upper and lower peninsulas being the irri-
eating cause. Talk of dividing Texas Is
frequently heard, both in and out of the
State, its magnitude being provoking and
an obstacle to fit legislative regard for
every part of it. Southern California has
been agitating division, and if it were not
for the obstinate opposition Of the north
ern and central portions it would perhaps
succeed. Some of your readers may POSSIBLY
have heard of projects for cutting of the
lower six counties of New York State and
Making or Them New state
with a couple of millions of population.
But the plan to divide Florida on the 18th
parallel of latitude is something new. The
proposed state would have 1900 or 2S, 900
square miles OF area-more than Massachu-
setts, Connecticut New Hampshire and
hlOue 1Slhuu u TeCeuL
Der OF the Gulf Coast Progress says:
Recent events point unmistakably to
the fact that south Florida has no rights
which the northern part of the State is
bound TO respect. We have been despoiled
of our lands to satisfy the insatiate thirst
of the greedy cormorants of the northern
and middle portions of the State, and if We
would save the remnant of our heritage
from the hands OF the despoiler We should
6e up and doing"
The Floridan defends the northern part
of the State against the charge of want of
respect for the rights of southern Florida,
going into details ON several points. 1t also
opposes the proposed division, declaring
that
Ia would he MOnstrOus.
1t ingeniously gives reasons why there can
never be harmony between the several
parts of the State, but does not consider
that sufficient reason for separation. The
following passage will be read with interest:
The in tirmity, as it were, OF Flocida is
her geographical malformation. Ter
ritoriallly she is fearfully and
wonderfully made, so to speak.
She would not have been so curiously con-
structed but for the circumstances that
when the boundaries of Georgia aud Ala
bama were determined the area of Florida
did not belong to the United States and
hence the lines of Alabama could not be run
down 20 the waters edge to obtain the port
OF Pensacola, nor those Of Georgia 70 pos
sess the fair land Of MIDDLE Florida with
its gulf harbors-a coast outlet naturally
belonging TO those States and the peninsu-
Ia slOne have constituted Florida. So Flor
ida's territory became a commonwealth of
the union in the same form as acquired
from Spain, and here we are now. awkward
ly shaped but quite determined to
Stick Together
and hold on to what we have, though ii is
eight hundred miles long around the elbow,
and more land than the six New England
States have, and so arranged that tits quite
out of the question that there will ever be
unity Of interests or entire mutuality OF
commercial intercourse, and consequently
political harmony. Atlantic, Eastern and
Northern connections pull one way, and
Gulf Southern and Western the other way.
One section is jealous OF another, for each
has what another can't have, and each
wants considerable of all. We cannot all
be satisfied even as to the location Of the
Capital, as a geographical centre is aprob-
lem that defes solution by any measure
ment of this bOot.shaped domain.
Wherever the Capital might be, it would
be too far OIL from some part OF the State.