BIDDLE, Clemtmt, American Revolu tionary soldier: b. Philadelphia, 10 M4y 1740; d. there, 14 July 1814. He was educated in the tenets of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and in early life engaged in commercial pur suits in his native city; but notwithstanding his Qualccr training, he joined a number of Quak er friends, in 1764, in forming a military corps for the protection of a party of friendly In dians who had sought refuge in Philadelphia. from the fury of a baud of lawless zealots known as the °Paxton Boys,)) who had recent ly massacred some unoffending Conestoga In dians at the interior' town of Lancaster. These banditti, powerful in numbers, had advanced within five or six miles of the city, threaten ing destruction, to all who should oppose them, when the vigor of the military prepa rations checked their further progress, Scarce ly had this local disturbance been quieted when news was received of the resolution of the British House of Commons to charge certain stamp duties in the colonies. The feeling en gendered throughout the whole country by this step and by the subsequent .passage of the Stamp Act. Induced, in Philadelphia, the cele brated °non-importation' resolutions') of 25 Oct. 1765, signed by the principal merchants of the city, including Colonel Biddle and his brother Owen. When all hope of a reasonable adjustment of the differences was lost, Colonel Biddle was greatly instrumental in forming the °Qtfakeril company of volunteers mised in Philadelphia in 1775, of which he was elected an officer before the corps joined the army. Congress, on 8 Jtify following, elected Colonel. Biddle deputy quartermaster-general of the militia of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware, ordered to rendezvous at Tren ton. Colonel Biddle took part in the battle of
Trenton at the close of the same year and, with another officer, was ordered by Washing ton to receive the swords of the Hessian of ficers. He was also engaged in the victory of Princeton, the surprise and retreat of Bran dywine and the unsuccessful enterprise of Ger mantown ,and during the winter of 1777-78 shared the sufferings of the American army at Valley Forge. As commissary-general of for age under General Greene he rendered im portant service to the army in several critical junctures, especially during the famine at Val ley Forge. At Monmouth he shared the suc cess of his countrymen. In September 1780, owing to the pressure of his private affairs, he was compelled to return to private life. His military career, however, was briefly renewed in the capacity of quartermaster-general of Pennsylvania in the expedition under Washing ton, in 1794, against the whisky insurgents of that State. Colonel Biddle labored earnestly also in the early political movements of the patriot party of his State, advocating effec tively the revolutionary State Constitution of 1776 (which his brother Owen had had, as a member of the convention, a share in fram ing). He was also active in support of a declaration or bill of rights as a constituent part of the Federal Constitution to prevent abuse or misconstruction of its powers. Af ter the organization of the Federal govern ment under the Constitution of 1787, Colonel Biddle was appointed marshal of Pennsylva nia, as an evidence of the regard in which he was held by Washington.