The parties tried before a military commission were tried under the laws of war, during a state of war, and were brought under the jurisdiction of a military tribunal because they were _secret active_ enemies of the government, and were engaged in an effort to aid the rebellion. This required that the word traitorously should be used, and that the treasonable purpose of the conspiracy should be alleged. This member of the conspiracy was indicted for his participation in this crime; but he had made good his escape, and had not been brought within the jurisdiction of the authorities that could hold him to account until long after the rebellion had been suppressed, and peace had been declared; and under the political policy which had been adopted by the government in dealing with the question of treason and traitors in connection with the war, he could only be indicted for his crime, as it was a violation of civil law. Hence these omissions in framing this indictment. The case is unique in the history of American jurisprudence. A number of his co-conspirators had been tried before a military commission under an arraignment that fully set forth, not only the crime of murder and a conspiracy to murder, but also the fact that it involved much more than the mere killing of a man--a private individual--that it was a conspiracy to murder the President of the United States, a treasonable conspiracy to subvert the government. It was a blow aimed at the nation's life. He who murders the humblest citizen sets at naught God's image impressed on man at his creation, and so commits a crime not only against a fellow man and a crime against society, but a crime against God. When Noah became the new head and progenitor of the race after the flood, God, who had just destroyed the world of mankind because they had filled the world with violence and blood, gave this law: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed; _for in the image of God created he him_." God is also the author of civil government, as we read in the thirteenth of Romans: "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God." Here we learn that civil government is the ordinance of God; and so he who assassinates a ruler, not only sets at naught God's image in man, but despises his ordinance for the welfare, protection, and peace of society. This treasonable aspect of his crime, although it could not, for the reasons stated, be embraced in his indictment, yet, as we shall see, was a matter of which the court and jury could take judicial cognizance.