Representative Josiah McNair Anderson

Josiah McNair Anderson (November 29, 1807 – November 8, 1861) was an American slave owner, lawyer, and politician who represented Tennessee’s 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Whig Party, he served one term in Congress during a pivotal period in the nation’s history, participating in the legislative process and representing the interests of his East Tennessee constituents in the years leading up to the sectional crisis that culminated in the Civil War.

Anderson was born near Pikeville, in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, on November 29, 1807. He attended the common schools of the region, reflecting the limited but expanding educational opportunities available on the Tennessee frontier in the early nineteenth century. After completing his basic schooling, he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of law in Jasper, Tennessee. Through his legal work and local prominence, he became integrated into the political life of the state and established himself as a public figure in the Sequatchie Valley and surrounding areas.

Anderson’s political career began in the Tennessee General Assembly. From 1833 to 1837 he served as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, where he rose to the position of speaker, presiding over the lower chamber during a period of significant growth and political realignment in the state. After several years, he returned to state service as a member of the Tennessee Senate from 1843 to 1845. In the upper chamber he again held a leadership role, serving as its presiding officer, which underscored his influence within the Whig Party and his stature among his legislative colleagues.

Elected as a Whig to the Thirty-first United States Congress, Anderson represented Tennessee’s 3rd congressional district from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1851. His tenure in the House coincided with intense national debates over slavery, territorial expansion, and the Compromise of 1850, and he took part in the broader democratic process at a time when sectional tensions were steadily mounting. Although he served only one term, his election reflected the strength of Whig sentiment in East Tennessee during this era. He was not a successful candidate for re-election in 1850 to the Thirty-second Congress, and thereafter he returned to his legal and political activities in Tennessee.

In the final phase of his public life, Anderson was drawn into the crisis over secession and the preservation of the Union. In early 1861 he served as a delegate from Tennessee to the peace convention held in Washington, D.C., an eleventh-hour effort by representatives of various states to devise means to prevent the impending Civil War. Despite these efforts at compromise, conflict soon became unavoidable. By 1861 Anderson held the rank of colonel in the Tennessee State Militia, aligning himself with the Southern cause as the state moved toward and into secession.

Anderson’s life ended violently in the first year of the Civil War. He was killed at Looneys Creek, near the present town of Whitwell in Marion County, Tennessee, on November 8, 1861, at the age of 53 years and 344 days, shortly after delivering a secession speech. Contemporary accounts reflected the intense partisan atmosphere of the time. An article in the North Carolina Standard, dated Wednesday, November 27, 1861, reported that on the day of the election, at or near Dunlap in Sequatchie County, Tennessee, he was “set upon by a band of Lincolnite assassins, and stabbed in the back, causing his instant death,” describing him as having formerly represented the Knoxville District in Congress and as a delegate to the “Peace Congress,” and asserting that his “only offense” was his defense of the South in conversation. Anderson was interred in the Anderson Family Cemetery, located about seven miles southeast of Dunlap in Sequatchie County, Tennessee, where his grave marks the resting place of a prominent but controversial figure of antebellum and Civil War–era Tennessee politics.