Representative Benjamin Alden Bidlack

Benjamin Alden Bidlack (September 8, 1804 – February 6, 1849) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and was later appointed chargé d’affaires to New Granada. He is best known for negotiating the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty, an agreement that marked the only instance in the nineteenth century in which the United States formally committed to defend the sovereignty of a Latin American state at that state’s request, and which helped pave the way for the eventual construction of the Panama Canal.

Bidlack was born on September 8, 1804, in Paris, Oneida County, New York. Little is recorded about his early childhood, but he moved to Pennsylvania as a young man, where he read law and prepared for a legal career. After completing his legal studies, he was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. His work as an attorney in this growing regional center brought him into contact with local political leaders and laid the foundation for his subsequent public career.

In addition to his legal practice, Bidlack became active in Pennsylvania public life. He served as a prosecuting attorney (district attorney) for Luzerne County, gaining experience in criminal law and public administration. His reputation as a capable lawyer and advocate for local interests helped propel him into elective office. As a member of the Democratic Party, he aligned himself with the dominant Jacksonian and later Democratic currents in Pennsylvania politics during the 1830s and early 1840s, a period marked by debates over banking, internal improvements, and the balance of federal and state authority.

Bidlack was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania in the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses. He served two terms in Congress, from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1847. During this significant period in American history, which encompassed mounting sectional tensions and the approach of the Mexican–American War, he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his constituents in northeastern Pennsylvania. As a Democratic member of the House, he took part in debates over national expansion, trade, and infrastructure, contributing to the broader democratic process in the antebellum era.

At the conclusion of his congressional service, Bidlack was appointed by President James K. Polk as chargé d’affaires of the United States to New Granada, a republic that then included the territory of present-day Colombia and Panama. In this diplomatic post he played a central role in negotiating what became known as the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty, concluded in 1846 between the United States and New Granada. The treaty granted the United States important transit and commercial rights across the Isthmus of Panama, including guarantees of free passage for goods and persons, while in return the United States pledged to guarantee the neutrality of the isthmus and the sovereignty of New Granada over that territory. This commitment was unique in the nineteenth century as the only formal U.S. undertaking to defend the sovereignty of a Latin American state at that state’s request.

The Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty had far-reaching consequences. By securing U.S. rights of transit across the isthmus and establishing a framework for protecting that route, it laid crucial diplomatic groundwork for later projects to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, ultimately helping to pave the way for the construction of the Panama Canal in the early twentieth century. The agreement also reflected the growing strategic and commercial importance the United States attached to interoceanic communication and foreshadowed a more active U.S. presence in the Caribbean and Central America.

Benjamin Alden Bidlack died in the course of his diplomatic service in New Granada. He passed away on February 6, 1849, in Bogotá, where he was serving as chargé d’affaires of the United States. His remains were later returned to the United States for burial. Though his life was relatively brief, his combined service as an attorney, legislator, and diplomat, and particularly his role in negotiating the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty, left a lasting imprint on U.S. foreign policy and on the history of interoceanic transit in the Western Hemisphere.