 Briggs was nominated to run for the governorship on the Whig ticket against the incumbent Democrat Marcus Morton in 1843 . Former Governor John Davis had been nominated first , but refused the nomination , possibly because Daniel Webster promised him party support for a future vice presidential bid . Briggs was apparently recommended as a compromise candidate acceptable to different factions within the party ( one controlled by Webster , the other by Abbott Lawrence ) . He was also probably chosen to appeal more directly to the state 's rural voters , a constituency that normally supported Morton . The abolitionist Liberty Party also fielded a candidate , with the result that none of the candidates won the needed majority . The legislature decided the election in those cases ; with a Whig majority there , Briggs ' election was assured . Briggs was reelected annually until 1850 against a succession of Democratic opponents . He won popular <unk> until the 1849 election , even though third parties ( including the Liberty Party and its successor , the Free Soil Party ) were often involved . Although Whigs had a reputation for aristocratic bearing , Briggs was much more a man of the people than the preceding Whig governors , John Davis and Edward Everett . 
