John Marshall Research Paper

Bibliographical Review#2 John Marshall was born on September 24, 1755. He was an American jurist and statesman who shaped American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a center of power. John Marshall was born in a log cabin near Germantown, a rural community on the Virginia frontier, in what is now Fauquier County near Midland, Virginia to Thomas Marshall and Mary Randolph Keith. The oldest of fifteen, John had eight sisters and six brothers. Also, several cousins were raised with the family. From a young age, he was noted for his good humor and black eyes, which were "strong and penetrating, beaming with intelligence and good nature. Thomas Marshall was employed by Lord Fairfax. Known as "the Proprietor", Fairfax provided
Marshall's early education was superintended by his father who gave him an early taste for history and poetry. Thomas Marshall's employer, Lord Fairfax, allowed access to his home at Greenway Court, which was an exceptional center of learning and culture. Marshall took advantage of the resources at Greenway Court and borrowed freely from the extensive collection of classical and contemporary literature. There were no schools in the region at the time, so home schooling was pursued. Although books were a rarity for most in the territory, Thomas Marshall's library was exceptional. His collection of literature, some of which was borrowed from Lord Fairfax, was relatively substantial and included works by Livy, Horace, Pope, Dryden, Milton, and Shakespeare. All of the Marshall children were accomplished, literate, and self-educated under their parents' supervision. At the age of twelve John had transcribed Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man and some of his moral essays. There being no formal school in Fauquier County at the time, John was sent, at age fourteen, about one hundred miles from home to the Academy of Reverend in Washington