Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-03-10
THE BLACK SPECTRE Ar RICHMOND.

The ghost which at present disturbs Richmond is
not white, but black but it is none the less confu
sing and terrifying Their teeth chatter, their brains
are added, their thoughts become confused, and
their words ridiculous, at Richmond, in the pres
ence of this fightfuI black spectre. in the multi
tude Of counselors there is safety, seemingly the
Confederacy was never so safe as now, for all the
penny-aliners and all the stump orators in Virgin
ia appear to have broken out at once, with reason
ings of every imaginable nature.
The Richmond Enquirer forcibly denounces the
Confederate Senate for its vote against arming
groes and urges that Mr. Davis shall defy that little
body of recalcitrant outlaws which calls itself SEN
ate in Richmond, and assumes dictatoral and .'su-
pra. constitutional powers
'These states and this cause stand to day in need
of Dictator-of a man who viii take the power of
the people, and use it for their preservation and
such man, whether President Davis or General
Lee, would be borne on the shoulders of grateful
people, if either ofthem would with strong hand
seize power and exercise it for the public safety.
The Whig depracates a quarrel between the cot
ton and border states, which, it says f not quickly
hushed viii necessarily prove total to the cause.
The Examiner declares that General Lee, in insis
ting on liberty for the slaves who are to be forced
into his army, has shown himself mot good south
erner" 1t asserts that
those senators who hold that it would be cruel
injury, both to white and black to sever their pres
ent relation of master and slave that to make free
DOM reward for service is at war with the first
principles OF this relation; and IS the beginning of
abolition, and that abolition means theabandonment
of the black to inevitable destruction upon this
continent-those senators undoubtedly right
From this we gather that the war is conducted by
the rebels purely philanthropic principles, and
for the preservation and benefit of the blacks An
other speaker, North Carolinan, warns the public
that if Lee attempts conscription of the blacks,
there viii be an insurrection amongst them other
orators mourn and moan about the injury the use Of
negroes soldiers must DO the peenliar institution
Some prophecy that the blacks viii not fight and
yet others-a considerable party-cry out Make
them fight but don't give them their liberty" In
the meantime the opponents of the Senate rejoice
that General Lee has taken the bull by the horns
has begun to drill 'wo companies of blacks in the
very streets of Richmond
1t does not seem TO have occurred to any of these
persons that the number Of ablebodied blacks with
in the reach of General Lees conscript officers il
probably so smal-notf FIVE thousand in all the regior
with which he now holds eommunication-tha the
rebel Senate refused to give up the principle o
slavery for so slight an advantage. Nor has it
seemingly, occurred to them, that if the blackl
could be put into the army they would be missed il
the cornfelds Nor have they remembered that II
enlist, form, drill and make fit for line of battle
such an army of negroes as they speak of would re
qure at least four or five months-by which time tn
crisis for which they are required viii be past
Nor, finally, do they appear to see that the argu
ments for, as well as the arguments against. maxim
soldiers OF the blacks which are promulgated a
Richmond, alike tend to cover the Shareholders wit
ridicule and show up the monstrus absurdiy of the
principles the bellowness of their professions an
the wiekedness of their cause.-N T. Eyening Pos