Until statehood in 1889, Washington Territory elected a non-voting Delegate to the United States House of Representatives, at-large.

James Patton Anderson was an American slave owner, physician, lawyer, and politician, most notably serving as a United States Congressman from the Washington Territory, a Mississippi state legislator, and a delegate at the Florida state secession convention to withdraw from the United States. He also served in the American Civil War as a general in the Confederate States Army, serving in the Army of Tennessee.