I used to work for Congress, and most of my job was getting yelled at by old people.

But outside of that, one of my duties was to give constituents tours of the Capitol.

Every state gets to contribute two statues to the Capitol.

My home state of Oklahoma displays Will Rogers and Sequoia.

Hawaii has the coolest statue.

It's this novel-looking black and gold statue of

King Kamehamea. And because he has some kind of religious significance to some islanders,

I don't know the backstory on that, but he's got religious significance. So the Hawaiian statue

is purposefully put underneath a skylight so that no one can ever walk on it, thereby disrespecting the memory of Kamea Man.

The biggest concentration of statues in the capital is in Statuary Hall, which is the old house of representatives before the modern dome was built.

And when I would give tours, there was always this one statue

that would catch my eye. A statue from Tennessee, that of General John Severe, first governor

of the state of Franklin. State of Franklin. So I'd be doing these tours tours and i would walk past that statue and i'd see

the the pedestal that would say first governor state of franklin and i would in my head go

alabama alaska arizona arkansas uh something something connecticut nope no franklin there's no state of franklin in the state song i'm something, something, Connecticut. Nope, no Franklin.

There's no state of Franklin in the state song.

I learned in elementary school.

In fact, I am 90% sure there's no Franklin in the Union.

But it turns out there was almost a state of Franklin.

In fact, there are quite a few almost states in American history.

Franklin, Jefferson, Transylvania, and my personal favorite, Nickajack. And I love the history

of these almost states because through, we explore other interesting issues.

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