O Say Can You See

At a Circuit Court of the District of Columbia begun and held in and for the County of Washington, at the City of Washington, on the fourth Monday of March, being the twenty fourth day of the same month, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the Fifty eighth.

Present
The Hon William Cranch, Chief Judge
Buckner Thruston & James S. Morsell Assistant Judges.
Alexander Hunter, Esquire, Marshal.
William Brent, Clerk.

In the Record of Proceedings of the same Court among others are the following, to wit:

Be it remembered, That heretofore to wit, on the eighth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty three, the said Henry Jackson, by John J. Dermott, Esquire, his attorney, filed in the Circuit Court here the following Petition, to wit:

"To the Honorable the Judges of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia for the County of Washington:

The Petition of Henry Jackson humbly complaining sheweth unto your honors that he is entitled to his freedom, and is unjustly   2 "held in bondage by Bernard H. Buckner and Aris Buckner who claim your Petitioner as their slave.

Wherefore your Petitioner prays your Honors to grant a subpoena to the said Bernard H. Buckner and Aris Buckner directed, and such relief in the premises as may be according to law.

John J. Dermott
Atty for Petitioner."

And thereupon the United States writ of subpoena was issued, directed to the Marshal of the District of Columbia in the words and of the tenor following, to wit:

"District of Columbia, To wit:

The United States of America, To the Marshal of the District of Columbia, Greeting:

You are hereby commanded to summon Bernard H. Buckner and Aris Buckner if they shall be found in the County of Washington, that (all excuses set aside) they be and appear before the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, to be held for the County of Washington, in the City of Washington, on the fourth Monday of November next, to answer the petition for freedom of Henry Jackson filed in said Court against them.

Hereof fail not at your peril; and have you then & there this Precept.

Witness W Cranch Esquire, Chief Judge of the said Court.

Issued the 8th day of July 1833.

Dermott. W. Brent, clk"

At which said fourth Monday of November   3 in the year of of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty three, being the day of return on the aforegoing writ of subpoena, came into the Circuit Court here the Petitioner aforesaid by his attorney aforesaid; and the Marshal of the District aforesaid, to whom the said subpoena was in form aforesaid directed, makes return thereof to the court here thus endorsed, to wit: "Non Sunt, H. Ashton, Marshal."

And thereupon the said Bernard H. Buckner and Aris Buckner by Walter Jones, Esquire, their attorney, voluntarily came into the Circuit Court here and defend the Complaint aforesaid, when and where the said Court shall take the same into consideration; and for plea they say that the said Petitioner is not entitled to his freedom as is alledged, and of this they put themselves upon the Country, and the said Petitioner in like manner, and so forth; Therefore let a Jury thereon appear before the Court here, on the fourth Monday of March next, by whom &c, and who neither &c, to recognize &c, because as well &c, the same day is given to the said parties then and there & so forth.

And now at this day, to wit, the said fourth Monday of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty four, came again into the Circuit Court here as well the said Petitioner by his attorney aforesaid, as the said Bernard H. Buckner and Aris Buckner by their attorney aforesaid; and thereupon the said   4. Bernard H. Buckner and Aris Buckner by their attorney aforesaid, filed in Court here the following affidavit, vizt.

Aris Buckner one of the Defendants in the above case, makes oath that he is credibly and certainly informed, and has good reason to think and believe, and does verily think and believe, that a fair and impartial trial of the above named case cannot be had in the County of Washington, where the said suit is depending: and prays for the usual order for removing the same into the County of Alexandria, pursuant to the provisions of the act of Congress in such cases.

And the said Defendant further makes Oath, that some time early in the session of this Court, commencing in March last, he duly made and presented to the Court then in session an affidavit, duly sworn to in Open Court, of the same effect as above, and thereupon moved the court for such order as aforesaid; which order, no opposition being thereto made, he understood was granted; and he attended the late term of this Court at Alexandria, under the full expectation and beliefs of finding such order carried into effect, and the said case there docketted for trial: but to his surprise discovered that the case had not been transmitted from this Court to that; and upon inquiry finds that, owing   5 "to the accidental omission and inadvertency either of the Court or the Clerk, no trace either of the former affidavit, or of the motion and order thereupon made, can be discovered among the papers or records of this court: he presumes that the affidavit was mislaid by the Court, and the order, though in fact allowed in the mind of the court, was forgotten to be delivered to the Clerk; because the Clerk distinctly recollects the fact of the affidavit being presented to the Court, but has no recollection of any order thereupon being communicated to him from the Court.

This Defendant further states that a suit is depending in the court at Alexandria, brought by a negro woman, and of the same set of negroes as those who are petitioners in the above cases, against Franklin & Armfield, to whom she was sold, and which suit is defended by this Defendant, as being answerable over: that the last mentioned case is to be tried at the ensuing adjourned Term at Alexandria, when & where it would be highly convenient and save much expense to try all the cases together, as they are all intimately connected together, in the evidence & principles of law in which they depend.
Aris Buckner

Sworn to by Aris Buckner in open court this 20th May 1834.
Test. W. Brent, clk"

Which being read and heard, it was ordered by the Court here, in pursuance   6 of the Law in such case made and provided, that a Transcript of the record and proceedings, in the plea aforesaid, with all things thereunto relating, be transmitted to Alexandria County. And the same is transmitted accordingly.

In Testimony of all which I hereunto subscribe my name and affix the seal of the said Circuit Court, at the City of Washington, this 6th day of August 1834.
W. Brent, clk