The Special Judge-Advocate responded, but he courteously, but unmistakably, shied away from his colleague's position and put the competency of the testimony upon another ground, viz.: that where the intent with which a thing was done is in issue, other acts of the prisoner which tend to prove the intent may be given in evidence. Here he was dealing with a familiar principle, and could cite any number of cases. He then proceeded to apply his good law. How? By claiming that conspiracy to murder having been laid in the charge, "_with the intent to aid the Rebellion_," that was the intent in issue here, and therefore to prove that a man was in the Rebellion went to prove that intent. At the request of General Ewing he read the allegation which ran "in aid of the Rebellion," and not "_with intent_ to aid," and the counsel pointed out that that was "an allegation of fact, and not of intent;" but the Judge insisted that it was in effect an allegation of intent--implied if not expressed. General Ewing then replied to his adversary's argument by showing that such an allegation was an unnecessary allegation. Conspiracy to murder and attempted murder were crimes done with _intent to kill_; and it was a matter of no moment in pleading to allege a general intent to aid the Rebellion. Courts had no right to violate the laws of evidence because the prosecution has seen fit to violate the laws of pleading. Judge Bingham contended (and cited authorities) for his familiar law, and then again in applying it triumphantly asked: "When he [Arnold] entered it (_i. e._, the Rebellion) he entered into it to aid it, did he not?" "Mr. Ewing. He did not enter into that to assassinate the President." At this, the Assistant Judge-Advocate rising to the decisive and culminating point of his argument gave utterance to the following proposition: "Yes: he entered into it to assassinate the President; and everybody else that entered into the Rebellion entered into it to assassinate everybody that represented the Government, that either followed the standard in the field, or represented its standard in the counsels. That is exactly why it is germane." And, thereupon, the Commission immediately overruled the objection. General Ewing told the exact truth, without a particle of rhetorical exaggeration, when, in the closing sentence of his argument against the jurisdiction of the Commission, he exclaimed: "Indeed, the position taken by the learned Assistant Judge-Advocate * * * goes to this--and even beyond it--namely, that participation in the Rebellion was participation in the assassination, and that the Rebellion itself formed part of the conspiracy for which these men are on trial here."