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A Biography Of A Virginian Research Paper

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I was born on Sept. 24, 1755 in Germantown, Virginia. My parents, Thomas Marshall and Mary Randolph Keith, had 15 children of which I was the oldest. While growing up, my parents homeschooled my 14 siblings and me, and later I was sent to one year of boarding school at the Campbell Academy, where I was classmates with James Monroe. While growing up in a politically connected family, my parents brought great influence into the household, knowledge and character wise. My father was a sheriff and a land surveyor, and my mother was the daughter of a clergyman and her bloodline could be drawn back to the Lees and Randolphs. As I was growing up, my main influence was George Washington, who was a friend of my father. Because of him, at the age of …show more content…

But at the Battle of Valley was where I received the highest honor I could have dreamed of at the time: I became Washington’s chief legal officer. After being in the military for a while, I decided to retire and go to study law. My only form of legal training or schooling was a six-week lecture serious given by George Wythe and William and Mary College, and by August of 1780 I received my license to practice. After completing the Virginia bar, I moved away to Richmond to start up my own legal firm. I choose Richmond because it housed the most prominent Virginian courts, such as the Court of Appeals. Because of my success in law, I was chosen to be the lead counsel for the Supreme Court on the case of Ware v. Hylton, which eased me into politics and the Supreme Court. In 1797 President Adams appointed me to go to diplomatic mission to France to negotiate a peace treaty with the French Republic. Even though the mission didn’t go well because of my refusal to agree to the French claims, my decision gained me great popularity and helped me move up in the political system. Because of my success, I was appointed Secretary of State by President

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