--The here of the "
Sumter" and of the "
Alabama" was recently sojourning for a few days in
Columbia.
On Wednesday evening he was serenaded by a large body of citizens and residents at Nickerson's Hotel.
In response to a vigorous call,
Captain Semmes, presented by His Honor the
Mayor, made a handsome little speech, says the
Guardian.
"He stated that this was his first visit to the interior of the
Confederacy since the war commenced.
He finds our material resources greater than he expected and our croakers more numerous.
The world, he said, has been struck with admiration at the heroism of our people; and that
Europe is our friend, especially
England, where nine-fourths of the people are with us, cordially and constantly.
They read of our victories with elation and praise, and of our reverses with dissatisfaction.
The English Government itself is not unfriendly towards us; but it is cautious, even timid.
That timidity was due to the exposed condition of
Canada, but especially to the ease with which
England's commerce can be swept from the seas.
And with reason; for if the
Confederates, with a few ships, have driven Yankee commerce from the seas,
England may reasonably expect a worse fate for her's at the hands of the
United States should war arise between them.
"He spoke in handsome terms of
South Carolina; of her heroic promptness in secession; her chivalry, and her antagonism to everything Yankee.
He referred briefly and happily to himself; to his bearing our flag to all the principal nations in the world; to the cordial feeling and honor with which it was received at every port; to the finer prospect ahead, that should encourage us to do and dare to the last.
He touched on the fate of the
Alabama — the victim of a Yankee trick, in masking an iron-clad with planks.
But the gallant
Lord of the
Main exulted in the fact that no vile foot of the foe ever polluted his decks; that as he had christened the
Alabama, he also buried her; that the victor off
Cherbourg captured not a splinter of her smallest spar nor a shred of her flag; that he buried her in the
English channel, side by side with the old ships and the old flags of old
England, safe from the reach and the insult of a dastardly foe.
"On the whole,
Captain Semmes made a capital little speech.
He appears in full uniform of the
Confederate States Navy, and is rather more
distingue looking than handsome.
He stands about five feet ten, wears a moustache and imperial; has a complexion touched slightly by the suns of every clime; and looks, take him all in all, every inch the chivalrous and fearless hero of a thousand romantic exploits on every ocean and sea on the globe."
