Joseph Inslee Anderson (November 5, 1757 – April 17, 1837) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
soldier, judge, and politician, who served as a
United States Senator
The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...
from
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
from 1797 to 1815, and later as the First
Comptroller
A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...
of the
United States Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...
.
[Charles Anderson,]
Pioneer Federal Judge and Classic 'Roman' Senator: Joseph Inslee Anderson
," ''Tennessee Bar Journal'', Vol. 43, No. 11 (November 2007). Retrieved: July 9, 2015. He also served as one of three judges of the
Southwest Territory
The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...
in the 1790s, and was a delegate to the Tennessee state constitutional convention in 1796.
From January to December 1805, Anderson served as
President pro tempore of the United States.
Biography
Early life
Anderson was born at White Marsh, near
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, the son of William Anderson and Elizabeth Inslee.
He acquired a good education and studied law.
In 1776, following the outbreak of the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, he enlisted in the
3rd New Jersey Regiment of the
Continental Army
The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...
, and rose to the rank of captain and paymaster in less than two years.
Anderson fought at the
Battle of Monmouth
The Battle of Monmouth, also known as the Battle of Monmouth Court House, was fought near Monmouth Court House in modern-day Freehold Borough, New Jersey on June 28, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. It pitted the Continental Army, co ...
, and was with the army during its difficult 1777 wintering at
Valley Forge
Valley Forge functioned as the third of eight winter encampments for the Continental Army's main body, commanded by General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia to escape the B ...
.
In 1781, he transferred to the
1st New Jersey Regiment, and fought with this unit at the
Battle of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...
.
At the end of the war, Anderson was discharged with the rank of major.
Having studied law before the war, he was admitted to the
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
, and practiced law in Delaware from 1784 to 1791.
He owned slaves.
Anderson was a
Freemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
. He was a member of Military Lodge No. 19 of Pennsylvania and became a member of Lodge No. 36 while in the
New Jersey Brigade. After the war, he was the first Senior Warden of Princeton Lodge No. 38 in Princeton, New Jersey.
Early Tennessee politics
In 1791, President
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
appointed Anderson United States
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
of the newly formed
Southwest Territory
The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...
.
He served alongside
David Campbell and
John McNairy
John McNairy (March 30, 1762 – November 12, 1837) was a British-American federal judge of the United States District Court for the District of Tennessee, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee and the United Sta ...
.
No records of any of the trials presided over by Anderson survive, with the exception of a 1794 murder trial.
This trial, conducted at the
Tellico Blockhouse
The Tellico Blockhouse was an early American outpost located along the Little Tennessee River in what developed as Vonore, Monroe County, Tennessee. Completed in 1794, the blockhouse was a US military outpost that operated until 1807; the garrison ...
, concerned an Indian charged with killing settler Joseph Ish.
In 1792, Anderson married Only Patience Outlaw, the daughter of Tennessee pioneer Alexander Outlaw.
His wife's dowry included land along the
Nolichucky River
The Nolichucky River is a river that flows through Western North Carolina and East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Traversing the Pisgah National Forest and the Cherokee National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the river's wate ...
in what is now
Hamblen County
Hamblen County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,499. Its county seat and only incorporated city is Morristown. Hamblen County is the core county of the Morristown Metropolitan Sta ...
(but was then a part of
Jefferson Jefferson may refer to:
Names
* Jefferson (surname)
* Jefferson (given name)
People
* Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States
* Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...
), where the Andersons built their home, Soldier's Rest.
In 1796, Anderson and his father-in-law represented Jefferson County at Tennessee's constitutional convention in Knoxville.
Resolutions introduced by Anderson and Outlaw included a motion to sever ties with the United States if Tennessee's petition for statehood was rejected, a motion to implement ''
viva voce
''Viva voce'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "with living voice" but most often translated as "by word of mouth."
It may refer to:
*Word of mouth
*A voice vote in a deliberative assembly
*An oral exam
**Thesis defence, in academia
*Spoken evi ...
'' voting instead of balloting, and a motion to establish a
unicameral legislature
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one.
Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...
, all of which were rejected.
Anderson swore in the new state's first legislature later that year.
United States Senate
In 1797, Anderson was elected by the
Tennessee General Assembly
The Tennessee General Assembly (TNGA) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is a part-time bicameral legislature consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The Speaker of the Senate carries the additional title ...
to fill the vacancy in the Senate created by that body's expulsion of the seat's original occupant,
William Blount
William Blount (March 26, 1749March 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, statesman, farmer and land speculator who signed the United States Constitution. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention of ...
.
That term was scheduled to expire on March 3, 1799; however, on December 12, 1798, the Tennessee General Assembly elected Anderson to the state's other (Class 1) Senate seat, which had been vacated by
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
, and was temporarily held by
Daniel Smith.
[Phillip Langsdon, ''Tennessee: A Political History'' (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), pp. 29-30, 39-41.] Anderson was re-elected to this seat in 1803, and again in 1809. In the latter election, he defeated retiring governor
John Sevier
John Sevier (September 23, 1745 September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennes ...
by a vote of 23 to 16.
Anderson voted against a Senate proposal to have Blount arrested in 1797. He opposed the
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were a set of four laws enacted in 1798 that applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the United States. The Naturalization Act increased the requirements to seek citizenship, the Alien Friends Act allowed th ...
, federal intervention into the issue of slavery, and the rechartering of the
national bank
In banking, the term national bank carries several meanings:
* a bank owned by the state
* an ordinary private bank which operates nationally (as opposed to regionally or locally or even internationally)
* in the United States, an ordinary p ...
.
He voted in favor of the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
.
In the
Eighth Congress (1803–1804), he served as the Senate's
president pro tempore
A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase ''pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...
.
Later life
After retiring from the Senate, Anderson was appointed Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury, the first to hold that office, by President
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
, and served in that office from 1815 until 1836.
He died in Washington on April 17, 1837, and was interred in the
Congressional Cemetery
The Congressional Cemetery, officially Washington Parish Burial Ground, is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American "cemetery of national m ...
.
Legacy
![Joseph Inslee Anderson, Congressional Cemetery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Joseph_Inslee_Anderson%2C_Congressional_Cemetery.jpg)
Anderson's son,
Alexander Outlaw Anderson
Alexander Outlaw Anderson (November 10, 1794May 23, 1869) was an American slave owner and attorney who represented Tennessee in the United States Senate, and later served in the California State Senate, and on the California Supreme Court.
Early ...
, served as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1840 to 1841, and helped organize the government of the State of California in the early 1850s.
Another son, William, served in the state legislature, and a nephew,
James W. Deaderick
James William Deaderick (November 25, 1812 – October 8, 1890) was an American attorney who served as chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1876 to 1886. Prior to becoming Chief Justice, he was an associate justice of the court, h ...
, served as a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Anderson County, Tennessee
Anderson County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in the northern part of the state in East Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, its population was 77,123. Its county seat is Clinton. Anderson County is included in the Kn ...
, is named for Joseph Anderson, as well as
Andersonville.
[Tara Mitchell Mielnik,]
Anderson County
" ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2009. Retrieved: September 15, 2011.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Joseph
1757 births
1837 deaths
Military personnel from Philadelphia
Politicians from Philadelphia
People of colonial Pennsylvania
American people of Dutch descent
Democratic-Republican Party United States senators from Tennessee
Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate
Southwest Territory officials
American Freemasons
Delaware lawyers
American slave owners
People from Hamblen County, Tennessee
Continental Army officers from New Jersey
Burials at the Congressional Cemetery
United States senators who owned slaves