Benjamin Alden BIDLACK, Congress, PA (1804-1849)

BIDLACK, Benjamin Alden, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Paris, Oneida County, N.Y., September 8, 1804; moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; attended the public schools; was graduated from the Wilkes-Barre Academy; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1825 and commenced practice in Wilkes-Barre; elected district attorney of Luzerne County in 1825; moved to Milford, Pike County, Pa., in 1830; county treasurer in 1834; returned to Wilkes-Barre; elected a member of the State house of representatives in 1835 and 1836; editor of the Republican Farmer and the Democratic Journal, Wilkes-Barre; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1845); appointed Chargé d’Affaires to Colombia May 14, 1845; successfully negotiated a “treaty of peace, amity, and navigation” with Colombia and secured for the United States the right to build a canal or railroad across the Isthmus of Panama; died in Bogota, Colombia, February 6, 1849; interment in the English Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present