Benjamin Alden Bidlack


Benjamin Alden Bidlack was an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and was appointed as a minister to New Granada.

Early life and education

Bidlack was born in Paris, New York. He moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and attended the public schools. After graduating from the Wilkes-Barre Academy, Bidlack studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1825. He then established a legal practice in Wilkes-Barre.

Career

He was elected district attorney of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in 1825. In 1830, he moved to Milford, Pennsylvania and served as Pike County treasurer in 1834. He returned to Wilkes-Barre, and was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1835 and 1836. He was editor of the Republican Farmer and the Democratic Journal in Wilkes-Barre.
Bidlack was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses. He was appointed Chargé d'Affaires to New Granada and on May 14, 1845. He successfully negotiated a “treaty of peace, amity, and navigation” with that secured for the United States the right to build a canal or railroad across the Isthmus of Panama. He died in Bogotá, Colombia in 1849, aged 44. He was interred in the English Cemetery.
Bidlack is remembered for signing the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty, a treaty between the Republic of New Granada and the United States, on December 12, 1846. He negotiated the pact with New Granada's commissioner Manuel María Mallarino.

Death

While in the Republic of New Granada to negotiate the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty, Bidlack died on February 6, 1849.