Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) this week signed legislation repealing the state’s Civil War-era song that referred to President Lincoln as "tyrant" and a "despot.”
Hogan on Tuesday signed the measure, calling it a “relic of the Confederacy, which is clearly outdated and out of touch.”
“Maryland, My Maryland” was written by a Confederate sympathizer, James Ryder Randall, in 1861 and was set to the tune of “O Tannenbaum.”
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It was inspired by a poem written following the Pratt Street Riot, where Southern sympathizers attacked the
6th Massachusetts Infantry
as they marched through Baltimore on their way to Washington, D.C. NPR noted that the violence occurred just days before the opening shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter.