 During his time in Congress , Briggs was a vocal advocate for temperance . He formed the Congressional <unk> Society in 1833 , sitting on its executive committee ; at an 1836 temperance convention at Saratoga Springs , New York he advocated the taking of total abstinence pledges as a way to bring more people away from the <unk> of alcohol , and notably prepared such a pledge for Kentucky Representative Thomas F. Marshall on the floor of the House of Representatives . His moves to organize the temperance movement in Congress died out when he left the body , but it was a cause he would continue to <unk> for the rest of his life . In 1860 he was chosen president of the American <unk> Union . 
