Joseph Edwin Washington was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 6th congressional district of Tennessee.
He was born on November 10, 1851 on the family homestead, "Wessyngton," near Cedar Hill, Tennessee in Robertson County. He received his early instruction at home and graduated from Georgetown College in Washington, D.C. on June 26, 1873. He studied law with the first law class organized at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1874. He was admitted to the bar, but never practiced, and he engaged in agricultural pursuits.
He was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1877 to 1879. He was elected as a Democrat to the Fiftieth and the four succeeding Congresses. He served from March 4, 1887 to March 3, 1897, but he was not a candidate for renomination in 1896. He was the chairman of the United States House Committee on Territories during the Fifty-second Congress.
He was appointed road commissioner and had charge of road construction work of Robertson County. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Vanderbilt University and a director of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis and Nashville & Decatur Railroads. He resumed agricultural pursuits upon the family homestead, "Wessyngton," in Robertson County, Tennessee, where he died on August 28, 1915. He was interred in the family burying ground on his estate.