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the ground that he was not then in a condition to make an intelligible statement of his case or to comprehend the responsibility of the preliminary oath he would have properly been required to take to justify me in issuing the warrant, but for reasons satisfactory to myself I determined to waive that objection, which I should have insisted on if he had been a white person, and I accordingly informed him that if he was willing to take an oath that he had reason to fear that the party against whom he complained would do him some future bodily injury I would issue the warrant; but that for the past offence, his remedy would be to indict the party before the Grand Jury or institute a civil suit against him or do both - but that I could not issue a warrant unless there was some peculiarly aggravating circumstances, attending the battery of which he complained, or unless he would make the oath, that he was afraid of a further attack - at first he declined to take such oath, but afterward said he would do it, and when I came formally to propound the oath to him, he refused to take it, and I thereupon refused to issue the warrant - apprehending

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-11-04 23:31:07