Look to Natty Boh jingle for new Maryland state song

The recent vote in the Maryland General Assembly to abolish, but not replace, the offensive state song, “Maryland, My Maryland” has, for the time being, finally put that long-debated issue to rest (unless Gov. Larry Hogan vetoes the legislation, which is an unlikely prospect). The song — written as a pro-secessionist tract by the poet and Maryland native James Ryder Randall — was originally adopted in 1935 by a Democratically controlled legislature (certainly a different brand than today). But it was vetoed by Republican governor Harry W. Nice because lawmakers refused to delete “objectionable verses” about Abraham Lincoln, the Union Army and Northern citizens. After Nice left office, the next governor, Herbert R. O’Conor, signed the song into law in 1939.