1435. COMMISSIONS, Blank.—
In matters
of government, there can be no question
but that a commission sealed and signed with
a blank for the name, date, place, &c., is good;
because government can in no country be carried
on without it. The most vital proceedings
of our own government would soon become
null were such a construction to prevail,
and the argumentum ab inconvenienti,
which is one of the great foundations of the
law, will undoubtedly sustain the practice,
and sanction it by the maxim “qui facit per
alium, facit per se.” I would not, therefore,
give the countenance of the government
to so impracticable a construction by issuing
a new commission.—
To Albert Gallatin. Washington ed. v, 371.
(W.
1808)
