"Sir," the letter began. "The submission of a free people to the executive authority of government is no more than a compliance with laws which they themselves have enacted. While the national honour is firmly maintained abroad, and while justice is impartially administered at home, the obedience of the subject will be voluntary, cheerful, and, I might almost say, unlimited."
By contemporary standards, such a letter would be unobjectionable, and likely unnoticed. A paean to self-governance. But this letter was published on January 21, 1769, in London's Public Advertiser newspaper. At the time, King George III was facing resistance in the colonies, and such a letter reminded the British people of their civil liberties and right to self determination. The author signed the letter only as "Junius."
