I was born in Baltimore, so even after we moved to D.C. when I was a toddler we would spend at least a third of our time in the extended family’s home, not that far from where the riots of a couple years ago took place. Since I never went to school there, I don’t know how I got to know the state song, but maybe some of the stanza’s grabbed me, such as the first one:
The despot's heel is on thy shore,
Maryland! My Maryland!
His torch is at thy temple door,
Maryland! My Maryland!
Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore
And be the battle queen of yore,
Maryland! My Maryland!
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Pretty dramatic, wouldn’t you say! This song, unlike most anodyne patriotic poems set to music, was a passionate call to arms, written as the decision of which side of the Civil War the state would join was being played out on the streets of Baltimore. While Wikipedia’s excellent comprehensive article from which I wrote this diary, says it was written in 1861 there are parts that had to be written after the war, such as this one:
VI
Dear Mother! burst the tyrant's chain,
Maryland! My Maryland
Virginia should not call in vain,
Maryland! My Maryland
She meets her sisters on the plain-
"Sic semper!" 'tis the proud refrain
That baffles minions back amain,
Maryland! My Maryland!
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Virginia is a synecdoche for the Confederate States of America, who are pleading for Maryland to join them to destroy the “tyrant” Abraham Lincoln. And then there’s “Sic semper” the first words of Sic Semper Tyrannis, shouted by John Wilkes Booth after shooting Lincoln, described not as perfidy but as a “proud refrain.” See the addendum below that explores the, perhaps intentional, ambiguity about the meaning of these words in the song.
Maryland was, in sentiment, a Southern State, evidenced by Lincoln receiving less than 3% of the popular vote in 1860. Yet, given their proximity to the District of Columbia they knew that if they seceded they would immediately be occupied by Union forces. So, in effect they were a resentful and defeated land during the ensuing war.
All they had was a song, a state song that would be their revenge of a hated oppressor, that would be chanted even if they defeated the confederacy that they identified with. I can’t help wondering how long the writer, James Ryder Randall , expected the song to last if the Union prevailed? Months, a few years, maybe a decade. But it’s been the official Maryland song for over a century and a half now. Somehow an artifact of an era that is only read about by those who study the Civil War in great depth.
It’s time now may be short, as there is another proposal to either rewrite or replace this song. However, a similar proposal passed the state senate by a large margin in 2016, but the chair of a key committee of the lower house said, “the member’s weren't ready to bring it up for a vote.”
On Wednesday, Delegate Peter A. Hammen, D-Baltimore City, the committee chairman, said that was for a reason.
After the hearings, several committee members approached him and asked him to slow down the process to change the official song designation, Hammen said.
He said many lawmakers need to become more comfortable before changing the state song, and that means it may not be appropriate for the committee to act this year.
You can’t patch this one to make it what it’s not, as the message of defiance is its essence, even though I doubt those millions of kids who sang over the long decade it had any idea what it meant.
Here's the audio
addendum from comments:
I doubt the quoted verse was written after the war. Sic semper tyrannis is the Virginia state motto. It's on their flag. JW Booth was a Marylander and he used the phrase for dramatic effect, being an actor and all.
Thanks for that insight. The Wikepedia article did say that Wilkes “later"used used that phrase, and I misunderstood it. While the song did call Lincoln a tyrant, it didn't necessary approve his assassination. I will tweak the Wiki article to clarify it.