In an effort to phase out potentially offensive Civil War-era language, Maryland lawmakers voted last Thursday to change references to "Northern scum" in its official state song.
The Maryland Senate voted 37-8 to make changes to the tune, sending the decision to the House. The song, "Maryland, My Maryland," makes references to a Civil War-era Union and makes potentially offensive gestures towards the South's rivalry with its Northern neighbor.
According to Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Democrat, he said of the decision to switch certain lyrics:
"They keep the historic song. It's still there, but this bill is an excellent compromise to move forward, so that our children and our children's children and so that all Maryland can be proud of our state song. At the present time, all of Maryland cannot be proud of our state song, and so that's the reason I'm voting green."
The song, if you aren't in the know, was written in 1861 by James Ryder Randall. Most of the offensive language stems from Randall's despondent attitude over the death of a friend who was shot in cold blood while protesting Union troops in the city of Baltimore.
In it, Randall calls President Lincoln a "despot" and, in keeping with his later assassin, he also refers to him as a "tyrant." The changes made to the song will keep one verse from the old lyrics and add a stanza from a 1894 poem by John T. White that describes the serine landscape of the state.
Maryland's decision to change the state song follows a similar path as South Carolina changing its state flag from a Confederate symbol, a decision made after the heinous Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shooting last year.
Until then, take a listen to the state song below.
