George N. Briggs

George Nixon Briggs
Portrait by Southworth & Hawes, c. 1848
19th Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 9, 1844 – January 11, 1851
Lieutenant	John Reed, Jr.
Preceded by	Marcus Morton
Succeeded by	George S. Boutwell
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts
In office March 4, 1831 – March 3, 1843
Preceded by	Henry W. Dwight
Succeeded by	Julius Rockwell
Constituency	9th district (1831–1833) 7th district (1833–1843)
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
Personal details
Born	(1796-04-12)April 12, 1796 Adams, Massachusetts
Died	September 12, 1861(1861-09-12) (aged 65) Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Political party	Whig
Spouse	Harriet Briggs
Children	Harriet Briggs George Briggs Henry Shaw Briggs
Profession	Lawyer
Signature

George Nixon Briggs (April 12, 1796 – September 12, 1861) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. A Whig, Briggs served for twelve years in the United States House of Representatives, and served seven one-year terms as the 19th Governor of Massachusetts, from 1844 to 1851.

Raised in rural Upstate New York, Briggs studied law in western Massachusetts, where his civic involvement and successful legal practice preceded statewide political activity. He was elected to Congress in 1830, where he supported the conservative Whig agenda, serving on the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads. He was also a regular advocate of temperance, abstaining from all alcohol consumption.^[1]

He was nominated by the Whigs in 1843 to run against Democratic Governor Marcus Morton as part of a Whig bid for more rural votes, and easily won election until 1849. Although he sought to avoid the contentious issue of slavery, he protested South Carolina policy allowing the imprisonment of free African Americans. He supported capital punishment, notably refusing to commute the death sentence of John White Webster for the murder of George Parkman. Briggs died of an accidental gunshot wound at his home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.