OATH

An attestation or promise to tell the truth or fulfill a pledge, for example, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth during a legal proceeding and which may include a reference of God as a witness. For a public official, their pledge to serve properly and faithfully perform duties is called an oath of office. An external pledge or asseveration, made in verification of statements made or to be made, coupled with an appeal to a sacred or venerated object, in evidence of the serious and reverent state of mind of the party, or with an invocation to a supreme being to witness the words of the party and to visit him with punishment if they be false. See O’Reilly v. People, 86 N. Y. 154, 40 Am. Rep. 525; Atwood v. Welton, 7 Oonn. 70; Clinton v. State, 33 Ohio St 32; Brock v. Milligan, 10 Ohio, 123; Blocker %. Burness, 2 Ala. 354. A religious asseveration, by which a person renounces the mercy and imprecates the vengeance of heaven, if he do not speak the truth. 1 Leach, 430. Assertory oath. One relating to a past or presont fact or state of facts, as distinguished from a “promissory” oath which relates to future conduct; particularly, any oath required by law other than in judicial proceedings and upon induction to office, such, for example, as an oath to be made at the custom house relative to goods fmported. Corporal oath. See Cor foral. Decisory oath. In the civil law. An oath which one of the parties defers or refers back to the other for the decision of the cause. Extrajudicial oath. One not taken in any judicial proceeding, or without any authority or requirement of law, though taken formally before a proper person. Judicial oath. One taken in some judicial proceeding or in relation to some matter connected with judicial proceedings. Oath against bribery. One which could have’been administered to a voter at an election for members of parliament. Abolished in 1854. Wharton. Oath ex officio. The oath by which a clergyman charged with a criminal offense was formerly allowed to swear himself to be innocent; also the oath by which the compurgators swore that they believed in his innocence. 3 Bl. Comm. 101, 447; Mozley & Whitley. Oath in litem. In the civil law. An oath permitted to be taken by the plaintiff, for the purpose of proving the value of the subject matter in controversy, when there was no other evidence on that point, or when the defendant fraudulently suppressed evidence which might have been available. Oath of allegiance. An oath by which a person promises and binds himself to bear true allegiance to a particular sovereign or government, e.g., the United States; administered generally to high public officers and to soldiers and sailors, also to aliens applying for naturalization, and, occasionally, to citizens generally as a prerequisite to their suing in the courts or prosecuting claims before government bureaus. See Rev. St U. S.