Joseph Inslee Anderson (November 5, 1757 – April 17, 1837) was an American soldier, judge, and politician, who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1797 to 1815, and later as the First Comptroller of the United States Treasury. He also served as one of three judges of the Southwest Territory 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, Pennsylvania, 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, he enlisted in the 3rd New Jersey Regiment of the Continental Army, and rose to the rank of captain and paymaster in less than two years. Anderson fought at the Battle of Monmouth, and was with the army during its difficult 1777 wintering at Valley Forge. In 1781, he transferred to the 1st New Jersey Regiment, and fought with this unit at the Battle of Yorktown. 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 bar, and practiced law in Delaware from 1784 to 1791. He owned slaves. Anderson was a Freemason. 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 appointed Anderson United States judge of the newly formed Southwest Territory. He served alongside David Campbell and John McNairy. 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, 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 in what is now Hamblen County (but was then a part of Jefferson), 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