Since 1764, the colonists have always been against the taxation of the British upon them.

It
began with the Sugar Act of 1764, where the colonists are more annoyed than angry, as the
lowered tax on molasses imports meant to them "not as a welcome reduction in taxes but as an
attempt to get them to pay a levy they would otherwise have evaded" (Foner 177). Then, in 1765,
an imperial policy that required printed material produced in the colonies to carry a stamp
purchased from authorities, called the Stamp Act, was, on the surface, to get colonies to help pay
for the debt from the French Indian War. However, the colonists viewed this act very negatively;
this meant that there would be no compensation for their efforts in the war, which had been
mostly fought by the colonists. This act also imposed a right -- by raising taxes, this decreased
economic freedom; which was, as well as property, a natural born right. In addition to this, the
King was also taxing the colonists without proper representation in parliament-- no consent from
the governed was given, an ideal derived from John Locke. This pattern of taxing was not
unfamiliar to the colonists and Irish immigrants; the same thing had been done to Ireland in the
Irish Declaratory Acts, almost 50 years prior. When boycotting for this act died down some, in
1770, a crowd of snowball-throwers and British soldiers escalated to an armed confrontation,
leaving 5 Bostonians dead, the colonists' views on the British were getting worse by the day.
Then again in 1773, the King imposed yet another tax upon the colonists; this time taxing their
tea. Now with this act, it was not the price that angered the colonists, but the principle. If they
were to pay this tax on the tea, it would almost be as if they were admitting their defeat, even
after all they had suffered thus far. Colonists "insisted that to pay [the tax] on this large new body
of imports would [be to] acknowledge Britain's right to tax the colonies"(Foner 185). So, in
response to the Tea Act, the Sons of Liberty led a group of colonists disguised as Indians aboard
3 ships anchored in the Boston Harbour, where they then dumped more than 300 chests of tea
into the water-- an event now known as the Boston Tea Party. This left the East India Trading
Company with €10,000 (around $4 million today). Viewed as treasonous to the King (as it was),
this led to the abandonment of salutary neglect, and what was to be the final straw for the
colonists -- the Coercive Acts.

Immediately following the treasonous Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, the Coercive
Acts (known as the Intolerable Acts today) were implemented in 1774. This act included the
Quartering Act, among many others. The Quartering Act particularly triggered the colonists, as
now so many of their natural born rights were being violated. Listing a few since they were
previously stated included, but are not limited to; the right of property… and the right of privacy.
British soldiers were permitted, by the King, to occupy the colonists' homes and properties, and,
as one could imagine, the colonists did not like this at all. The Enlightenment of the 18th century
had shown them what their rights were, as humans, and the colonists did not enjoy having those
rights taken away from them, especially by a king who did not have the right to tax or impose on
the rights of the colonists.

The Founding Fathers, authors of the documents which built this nation, were directly influenced
by the ideals of the Enlightenment as all of their actions were to protect their natural born rights.
In Thomas Jefferson's Summary View of the Rights of British America, he wanted to "remind him
that our ancestors, before their emigration to America, were, the free inhabitants of the British
dominion in Europe, and possessed a right, which nature has given to all men" (Jefferson 2). This
shows how he used the Enlightenment to justify man's natural born rights and the natural law of
man. In another document of Jefferson's Common Sense, he again states "in this first parliament
every man by natural right will have a seat" (Jefferson 2), which provides more evidence of how
he was influenced by the natural law of government. Similarly stated in George Mason's
Virginian Declaration of Independence, written just a month before the Declaration of
Independence, for which it served as a model, it is stated "that all men are by nature equally free
and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of
society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of
life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining
happiness safety" (Mason 1). Therefore we can conclude that the authors of these documents
took heavily to the Enlightenment as ideals for these publications, as they include ideals from
Charles de Secondat and Baron de Montesquieu.