Specification 6. - In this, that in a public newspaper published in the town of Columbia, county of Boone and State of Missouri, styled and called The Boone County Standard of which paper the said Edmund J. Ellis was editor and proprietor, the said Edmund J. Ellis on the 7th day of February, A. D. 1862, at Columbia aforesaid printed and published and cuased to be printed and published a certain article entitled "News from General Price," the design and object of which article was to give information to the enemies of the Government and to encourage resistance to the Government and laws of the United States.

CHARGE 2: Violation of the laws of war by the publication within the lines of the troops of the United States in a public newspaper of articles and information intended and designed to comfort the enemy and incite persons to rebellion against the Government of the United States.

Specification 1. - In this, that in a public newspaper printed and published in the town of Columbia, county of Boone, State of Missouri, styled and called The Boone County Standard of which said newspaper the said Edmund J. Ellis was the editor and proprietor, the said Edmund J. Ellis on the 29th day of November, 1861, at Columbia did publish and cause to be published a certain treasonable and seditious communication, viz, a letter addressed to the people of Kentucky and signed by J. C. Breckinridge, by which publication the said Edmund J. Ellis designed and intended to comfort the enemy and incite to rebellion against the Government of the United States persons within the lines of the troops of the United States.

Specification 2. - In this, that the said Edmund J. Ellis did print and publish and cause to be printed and published and circulated within the lines of the United States a certain pamphlet styled "To the Patriot Army of Missouri," which pamphlet was calculated and designed to give aid to the enemy and to encourage and incite to acts of insurrection the people living within these said lines of troops; which pamphlet is hereto appended and marked. All this or or near Columbia, Mo., on or about the first day of October, 1861.

Specification 3. - Thatin a public newspaper printed and published in the town of Columbia, Boone County, Mo., knownand styled as The Boone County Standard of which said newspaper the said edmund J. Ellis was the editor and proprietor, the said Edmund J. Ellis did on the 6th day of December, 1861, at Columbia publish and cause to be published certain articles, viz, a treasonable and seditious article "Sterling Price, major-general commanding," and a certain other treasonable and seditious article entitled "Convention between the State of Missouri and the Government of the Confederate States" and signed "E. C. Cabell, Thomas L. Snead and R. M. T. Hunter," also a certain other treasonable and seditious artcile entitled "Message of President Jefferson Davis tol the Congress of the Confederate States" and signed "Jefferson Davis, Richmond, November 18, 1861. " All of which articles were published with the intent and design of giving comfort to the enemy and of inciting to rebellion against the Government of the United States persons within the lines of the troops of the United States.

To which several charges and specifications the accused interposed his plea to the jurisdiction of the court as follows, viz:

The accused, Edmund J. Ellis, objects and expects to the jurisdiction of the court or military commission on all the matters and things stated in the two charges and the various specifications therender on the grounds following, viz: That the matters and things therein stated and charged (admitting them to be true, the truth of which, however, he controverts) are wholly ane exclusively of civil cognizance.

Second. Because there is no supervision of the arm of civil power, no obstruction to judicial process and hence no sudden and extraordinary necessity (so far as the present case is concerned) for the intervention of a summary military commission or any military authority whatever.

Third. Because the matters and things stated in the said charges and specifications if criminal at all are violations of the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Whereupon the court having been cleared proceeded to consider said plea and after mature deliberation overruled the said plea.