Military officer; born of
Quaker parents, in
Philadelphia, Pa., in 1744; was educated in the Philadelphia College; visited
Europe in 1765, and, on his return, became a merchant.
Having served in the legislature of Pennsylvania,
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he was chosen a member of the first Continental Congress in 1774; was appointed major of one of the first regiments raised in
Philadelphia, and accompanied
Washington as aide-de-camp to
Cambridge in the summer of 1775.
All through the
Revolutionary War Mifflin was a faithful and efficient officer, rising to the rank of major-general in 1777.
He was eloquent in speech, and was efficient in rousing his countrymen to action when necessary.
In this way, traversing
Pennsylvania, he caused large numbers of its citizens to flock to the standard of
Washington before the attack on the enemy at
Trenton.
He was quartermaster-general, and, in 1777, was a member of the board of war.
Mifflin was one of “
Conway's cabal,” a conspiracy to put
Gates in the place of
Washington.
Late in 1782 he was elected to Congress, and was president of that body in the last month of that year, when
Washington resigned his commission into their hands.
General Mifflin was a delegate to the convention that framed the national Constitution (1787), and was president of the supreme executive council of
Pennsylvania (1788-90). He was also president of the convention that framed his State constitution (1790), and was governor of the
State from 1791 to 1800.
He was very efficient in quelling the
Whiskey Insurrection in 1794.
He died in
Lancaster, Pa., Jan. 20, 1800.
