O Say Can You See

If from the evidence the Jury shall be of opinion that M Andrew B. McLean was the bona fide owner of the said petitioner, and while such bona fide owner resided as an officer bound[?] in the employment of the United States for a series of years at Fortress Monroe within the Territory of the United States, and not within the [illegible] of any state of this Union, and brought from the said Territory into the District of Columbia, when with his family when he removed here to reside, thence on then although the Jury shall further find that the said petitioner was sold within three years after such removal into the said District she is not entitled to her freedom under such sale and removal, unless they shall further find that such residence at said Fortress Monroe was intended to defeat the or avoid the law prohibiting the importation of slaves.

refused - nem. con.