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Rh 1853 till 1856, in connection with George William Curtis and Parke Godwin, he was an editor of " Putnam's Magazine," and was also an editor of the new series begun in 1869. He was also connected with the "New York Times" and the "Elvening Mirror," in which he published a series of humorous letters signed " Fernando Mendez Pinto." He was afterward employed in the cus- tom-house, and in 1870 joined the editorial staff of the Brooklyn "Union," of which he was chief editor in 1874. In the latter part of 1874 he became an attache of the New York " Inde- pendent," where he continued till his death. He published "Harry

Franco ; a Tale of the Great Panic " (1839) ; " The Haunted Merchant " (1843) ; " Working a Passage, or Life on a Liner " (1844) ; " Trippings of Tom Pepper " (1847) ; and, in connection with A. Mav- erick, "History of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable" (185S). These works are largely humorous, and deal with life in New York city. Mr. Briggs also wrote a few pieces of poetry, some of which ap- peared in " Putnam's Magazine," and others in a volume of selections entitled " Seaweeds from the Shores of Nantucket " (Boston, 1853).

BRIGGS, George Nixon, governor of Massa- chusetts, b. in Adams, Mass., 13 April, 1796; d. in Pittsfield, Mass., 12 Sept.. 1861. His father served under Stark and Allen at Bennington. In 1809 he was apprenticed to a hatter at White Creek, N. Y., but was taken from the shop in 1811 by an elder brother and given a year's schooling. He then be- gan the study of law, and in October, 1818, was admitted to the bar of Berkshire co., Mass., where he soon became prominent, practising in Adams, Lanesborough, and Pittsfield. In 1827, by his de- fence of a Stockbridge Indian, who was tried for murder at Lenox, he established his reputation as one of the best criminal lawyers in the state. From 1824 till 1831 he was register of deeds for his county, and in 1830 was elected to congress as a whig, serving six successive terms, and being at one time chairman of the post-office committee. He was known as an eloquent debater. From 1843 till 1851 he was governor of Massachusetts. During his administration the murder of Dr Pai'kmau by Prof. Webster occurred, and the most extraor- dinary efforts were made to induce the governor either to pardon the offender or to commute his sentence ; but, believing that the good of the com- munity required the execution of the murderer, he refused to interpose. Gov. Briggs was appointed one of the judges of the court of common pleas in 1851, which office he continued to fill till the reor- ganization of the courts of the state in 1856. In 1853 he was a member of the state constitutional convention. In 1861 he was one of a commission to adjust the claims between the United States and New Granada ; but his death, which resulted from the accidental discharge of a fowling-piece, oc- curred before he had entered upon his duties. He had taken a deep interest in the great struggle upon which the nation had just entered, and one of his last public acts was to address a regiment of Massachusetts volunteers, of which his son was the colonel. Gov. Briggs had taken through life an active interest in religious and benevolent enter- prises, and at the time of his death was president of the American Baptist missionary union, of the American tract society at Boston, the American temperance union, and the Massachusetts Sabbath- school union, and director in several other benevo- lent societies. He was also, for sixteen years, a trustee of Williams college. A memoir of him, with the title " Great in Goodness," was published bv the Rev. William C. Richards (Boston, 1866).— His son, Henry Shaw, soldier, b. 1 Aug., 1824, was- graduated at Williams in 1844, and became a law- yer. At the beginning of the civil war he joined the army as colonel of the 10th Massachusetts vol- unteers, and distinguished himself at the battle of Fair Oaks, where he was wounded. On 17 July, 1862, he was made a brigadier-general. At the close of the war he was a member of the general court-martial in Washington, D. C— Joseph Will- iam, postal reformer, nephew of George Nixon, b. in Clermont, N. Y., 5 July, 1813 ; d. in Cleveland, Ohio, 23 Feb., 1872. He was left an orphan in infancy, was brought up in the family of his uncle,, received a common-school education, and followed the trade of a harness-maker. In 1864, having be- come an enthusiastic advocate of the free-delivery letter system, he received from Postmaster-General Blair the appointment of superintendent of the- system throughout the country. He organized it in fifty-two cities, and literally wore himself out in the service. Mr. Briggs was a man of more tlian ordinary mechanical genius. In 1838 he patented a stitching-Dinchine, and claimed that he was the first to use a grooved-eye pointed needle that made a lock-stitch.

BRIGHAM, Amariah, physician, b. in New Marlborough, Berkshire CO., Mass., 26 Dec, 1798;. d. in Utica, N. Y., 8 Sept., 1849. He lost his father early in life, and was taken in charge by his uncle, a physician in Schoharie, N. Y., who intended to educate the boy for his own profession. But his uncle's death forced young Brigham, then about fourteen years old, to rely upon himself, and, mak- ing his way alone to Albany, he obtained a place in a book-store, where he remained three years, ac- quiring a great f(indness for books. Returning to New Marlborough, he spent nearly five years, first in preparation for tlie study of medicine, and then in its prosecution, teaching school, meanwhile, dur- ing the winter months. Beginning practice about 1821, he lived two years in Enfield, Mass., and then removed to Greenfield, where he became widely known as a surgeon. In June, 1828, he visited Europe, where he spent a year in Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain, attending occasional lectures and studying in hospitals and other public institutions. Returning to Greenfield, he remained until April, 1831, when he removed to Hartford, Conn., and soon became eminent. At this time infant schools were in high favor in Hartford, and frequent revivals were in progress there. Dr. Brigham, deeming both injurious, published his views on the former in a work entitled " Influence of Mental Cultivation on the Health " (1832 ; 3d ed., Philadelphia, 1845), and on the latter in " Influence of Religion upon the Health and Physical Welfare of Mankind " (Boston, 1835). These outspoken opinions of Dr. Brigham's, together with his politics, which were sti'ongly democratic, prejudiced many worthy people against him. In 1837 he delivered