Authentic

2 In legal parlance, duly vested with all formalities and legally attested.' Authentication. Official, legal attestation to a thing done; as, of a copy made of an act of legislation, or of the record in a court or other public office. There does not appear to be any necessary or inherent meaning in the word "authenticated" as used in the act of June 19, 1876, amending Eev. St., § 5271, which relates to extraditions and requires the authentication to be in writing. Authentication in regard to <^riginal papers may be made by oral proof. A witness may swear to the verity and identity of the original, and that it would be received in the tribunals of the foreign country as evidence of the criminality of the accused. But when copies are offered they must be authenticated according to the law of the foreign country— for which the certificate of the principal officer of the United States is absolute proof.* See Faith, Full, etc.; Law, Foreign.