 Briggs was what became known in later years as a " Cotton Whig " . He was in favor of protectionist tariffs , and opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories , but did not seek to threaten the unity of the nation with a strong stance against slavery . He served on the Committee on Public Expenditures and the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads , serving for a time as the chairman of each . The Post Office committee was a regular recipient of complaints from southern states concerning the transmission of abolitionist mailings , which were seen there as incendiary ; the matter was of some controversy because southern legislators sought to have these types of mailings banned . Briggs ' friend Hiland Hall , who also sat on the committee , drafted a report in 1836 rebutting the rationales used in such legislative proposals , but the committee as a whole , and then the House , refused to accept the report . Although the authorship of the report appears to be entirely Hall 's , Briggs may have contributed to it , and was a signatory to Hall 's publication of the report in the National Intelligencer , a major political journal . The document was influential in driving later Congressional debate on legislative proposals concerning abolitionist mailings , none of which were ever adopted . Briggs and Hall were both instrumental in drafting and gaining passage of the Post Office Act of 1836 , which included substantive accounting reforms in the wake of financial mismanagement by Postmaster General William Taylor Barry . 
 Briggs was what became known in later years as a " Cotton Whig " . He was in favor of protectionist tariffs , and opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories , but did not seek to threaten the unity of the nation with a strong stance against slavery . He served on the Committee on Public Expenditures and the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads , serving for a time as the chairman of each . The Post Office committee was a regular recipient of complaints from southern states concerning the transmission of abolitionist mailings , which <a href='uninflect' title='1'><mark>were</mark></a> seen there as incendiary ; the matter was of some controversy because southern legislators sought to have these types of mailings banned . Briggs <a href='null_genetive' title='2'><mark>'</mark></a>friend Hiland Hall , <a href='null_relcl' title='3'><mark>who</mark></a>also sat on the committee , drafted a report in 1836 rebutting the rationales used in such legislative proposals , but the committee as a whole , and then the House , refused to accept the report . Although the authorship of the report <a href='uninflect' title='4'><mark>appears</mark></a> to be entirely Hall <a href='null_genetive' title='5'><mark>'s</mark></a>, Briggs may <a href='been_done' title='6'><mark>have</mark></a> contributed to it , and was a signatory to Hall <a href='null_genetive' title='7'><mark>'s</mark></a>publication of the report in the National Intelligencer , a major political journal . The document was influential in driving later Congressional debate on legislative proposals concerning abolitionist mailings , <a href='None' title='8'><mark>none</mark></a> of which <a href='uninflect' title='9'><mark>were</mark></a> ever adopted . Briggs and Hall <a href='uninflect' title='10'><mark>were</mark></a> both instrumental in drafting and gaining passage of the Post Office Act of 1836 , which included substantive accounting reforms in the wake of financial mismanagement by Postmaster General William Taylor Barry . 
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