Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-03-17
WENDELL PHILIPS ON THE WAR
Movements and Positions of
the Rebels!
HORRIBLE REBEL ATROCITIES! J!
An EngIIshman's Views Of Fort
OlelsOn /!
MORE IRON CLAD GUN BOATS
Especial Dispatches to Cleveland LeaderJ
WAsHINaroH, March IS.

| COMMENTS OF THE REREL PRESS
The Richmond Examiner of March Ilth,
says the Potomac was the proper base Of Of
fensive operations against Maryland and
Washington, but as a line Of defense for
Richmond, or for general resistance, it was
the most dangerous possible The line upon
which Gen. Johnson's army is falling is the
arc of a circle OF which Richmond is the
centre, stretching from the Rappahannock to
Cumberland Gap, embracing Central Virginia
and Tennessee railroads, the Valley of the
James, with canals and railroads to the chief
cities of Virginia It is distressing to give
up SO much of the Old Dominion, but it is
a strategic necessity.
The Richmond Dispatch ssys by April
lst, We shall have larger disposabIe force
than the enemy, who must retain two hun
dred thousand men to guard Maryland and
Washington, one hundred thousand to hold
Kentucky and Maryland, twenty thousand
in the forts, and eighty thousand in the fleets,
leaving the disposaOle force only three hun
dred thousand for invasion, which must be
diminished one-third by forces detailed to
keep up communications with bases of Oper-
stions The ranks will soon be decimated
by mAlaIious diseases.
NEWS FROM FORT PIoKEEs.
Letters from Fort Pickens report news
from loyal blacks of the evacuation of Pen
sacola going on.
PERSONAL WENDELL PHILLIPS LECTURE.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is here.
Vice President Hamlin sat on the platform
last night at Phillips lecture. Powell and
Wsdsworth, Of Kentucky Speaker Grow,
and many other Congressmen were present
in the large enthusiastic audience. The
speaker was hearty in praise of the emanci-
patton message, which he declared was a
voice from the Holy of HOLES, saying, gentle
men of the Border States, now Is your time
to sell-now or never. It was a very little
wedge, but Lincoln's face is turned toward
Canaan. He had emigrsted from kentucky
Was there no constitutional power to touch
slavery. The Constitution in peace gave
none to suspend the habeas corpus, to make
paper money legal tender, to purchase
South Mississippi, to steal Texas, or to block
ade Charleston with stone vessels, but out of
rebellion the Government had got the power
to smite slavery. Lincoln sits surrounded
BY thunderbolts, and has but to put forth bis
hand and hurl one at the system. You can
not stop or help the issue of the fight. En-
camp in the South and one hundred thousand
blacks viii soon join one hundred thousand
soldiers.
You may say the Stars and Stripes do not
mean freedom, but the slaves know they do.
Every cannon fred by Halleck or heard by
Mcclellan Che never fred One) is an anti
slavery lecturer.
This, and his allusion to ''Quaker guns'
against Quaker General, were received
with a storm of applause
add one of his numerous sentences, worth
quoting: "The South marched up to the Po-
tOmac with neither men, munitions nor mon
ey, only an idea, and held at bay the North
with plenty of men, munitions money and
Major Generals, but not an idea The lee
ture was rambling, but full of wonderfully
strong and eloquent passages.
Phillips dimes with Speaker Grow to-day,
and will lecture in the evening on Toussaint
THE STRENGTH OF REBEL REGIMENTS.
Official returns found at OentreVille indi-
cate cOnclusively the strength of rebel regi-
mants to average under FIVE hundred De-
serters say some had only two hundred.
GEMS. WADsWoRTH AND NO DoWELI.
Gen. Wadsworth has become military Gov
ernor and Provost Marshal of the District
to-day. No more slave catching here. Vote
on McDowelrs confirmation, twsnty-one to
thirteen.