Autograph Letter Signed
Boston, MA: July 18, 1845. 9.75" x 7.75", 1 pp., Signed as the 19th Governor of Massachusetts. Mailing folds, ink smudge in last line, previous note in pencil at top. Content: Gov. Briggs apologies that his daughter, Harriet, is sick in bed and unable to spend a few days away. He writes true concern for her welfare.
George Nixon Briggs (Apr 1796 – Sep 1861) began his career as a lawyer, was soon voted in the U. S. House of Representatives and ultimately to the Governorship from 1844 to 1851. His political bent was as a conservative Whig, serving on the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads. He was also a regular advocate of temperance, abstaining from all alcohol consumption, this personal trait going back to his revival in the Second Great Awakening. 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, which came to be known as the Crime of the Century (19th). Fine. Item #1511
Price: $100.00