Posted on 03/25/2009 6:54:39 AM PDT by laotzu
Maryland lawmakers are thinking maybe it's time to find a way to scrub "Northern scum" — and a few other sensitive pre-Civil War phrases — from the official state song.
"Maryland, My Maryland," set to the traditional seasonal tune of "O, Tannenbaum," was written in 1861 and adopted as the state song in 1939. But now some lawmakers are pushing for a change to the warlike language in what was originally a poem that doubled as a call to arms.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller wants a new commission to examine the song and consider changing some stanzas to reflect the state's diversity and remove offensive phrases.
"I love history, but there comes a time when you have to adjust," Miller, a Democrat, told senators Tuesday.
A Maryland House of Delegates committee voted down a bill to change the song because members were reluctant to tinker with history.
That bill — and another still making its way through the Senate — would have replaced the words written by James Ryder Randall in 1861 with ones penned by John T. White in 1894 describing the state's natural beauty.
Randall's poem calls for Maryland to secede from the Union — at a time before the Civil War when Maryland residents sympathized with the Confederacy.
The song begins with a hostile reference to President Abraham Lincoln, who brought troops through Baltimore en route to protect Washington: "The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland! His torch is at thy temple door, Maryland!"
It ends with a call for the state to stand up to the Union: "She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb — Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum! She breaths! She burns! She'll come! Maryland! My Maryland!"
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
...just change it to “yankee scum”!
;^)
Maryland was a slave state and raised almost as many units for the confederacy as they did for the union. And there were two units with the same ID that fought each other (forget the name of it)...
I
The despot’s heel is on thy shore,
Maryland!*
His torch is at thy temple door,
Maryland!
Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore,
And be the battle queen of yore,
Maryland! My Maryland!
II
Hark to an exiled son’s appeal,
Maryland!
My mother State! to thee I kneel,
Maryland!
For life and death, for woe and weal,
Thy peerless chivalry reveal,
And gird they beauteous limbs with steel,
Maryland! My Maryland!
III
Thou wilt not cower in the dust,
Maryland!
Thy beaming sword shall never rust,
Maryland!
Remember Carroll’s sacred trust,
Remember Howard’s warlike thrust,-
And all thy slumberers with the just,
Maryland! My Maryland!
IV
Come! ‘tis the red dawn of the day,
Maryland!
Come with thy panoplied array,
Maryland!
With Ringgold’s spirit for the fray,
With Watson’s blood at Monterey,
With fearless Lowe and dashing May,
Maryland! My Maryland!
V
Come! for thy shield is bright and strong,
Maryland!
Come! for thy dalliance does thee wrong,
Maryland!
Come to thine own anointed throng,
Stalking with Liberty along,
And chaunt thy dauntless slogan song,
Maryland! My Maryland!
VI
Dear Mother! burst the tyrant’s chain,
Maryland!
Virginia should not call in vain,
Maryland!
She meets her sisters on the plain-
“Sic semper!” ‘tis the proud refrain
That baffles minions back amain,
Arise in majesty again,
Maryland! My Maryland!
VII
I see the blush upon thy cheek,
Maryland!
For thou wast ever bravely meek,
Maryland!
But lo! there surges forth a shriek,
From hill to hill, from creek to creek-
Potomac calls to Chesapeake,
Maryland! My Maryland!
VIII
Thou wilt not yield the Vandal toll,
Maryland!
Thou wilt not crook to his control,
Maryland!
Better the fire upon thee roll, Better the blade, the shot, the bowl,
Than crucifixion of the soul,
Maryland! My Maryland!
IX
I hear the distant thunder-hum,
Maryland!
The Old Line’s bugle, fife, and drum,
Maryland!
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb-
Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!
She breathes! she burns! she’ll come! she’ll come!
Maryland! My Maryland!
Knowing how things are in Maryland, they’ll change it to “Southern scum.” Or “white-boy scum.” Maryland’s a great state that’s being driven into the ground by the people that run it...led by Baltimordor.
}:-)4
Sheesh, I'm a yank and it doesn't bother me.
Dixie Ping
Change it to Washington scum.
Growing up in rural Maryland in the 70s, we learned the “Natural Beauty” version of the song in school. But we all knew that that was not the “real” song.
If Lincoln hadn’t arrested a large number of Marylanders and flooded the state with federal troops it may well have voted to secede, leaving Washington surrounded....
Place hasn’t been the same since the last Rye Whiskey distillery closed in ‘73.
Translation: "I like to ignore history, but even I know the public schools haven't dumbed down the people enough for me to get away with saying that."
My guess is that not one out of a thousand Marylanders even know the words to the first verse, let alone ALL the verses, particularly the last. I say let it stand, a reminder to every generation that strife is never far away when one group sets itself up as the masters of another.
People really need to get a grip.
I’ve been called worse than scum. Some people are way too sensitive.
Why drop it? It’s more appropriate than ever before.
Where in rural Maryland? I lived for a while in Southern Maryland..
like Virginia Maryland is now dominated by Northern scum, the last vestiges of Southern gentility can only be found on the Eastern Shore and Annapolis.
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