Stamp Act

In 1765 English Parliament instituted the Stamp Act, the latest in a series of measures undertaken ‘towards defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing, the British colonies and plantations in America’. It provided that revenue stamps be affixed to all newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, licenses, leases or other legal documents, the revenue (collected by American customs agents) to be used for "defending, protecting and securing" the colonies. The Stamp Act affected nearly all aspects of business, …

…a government based on popular consent in place of a government by a king who had "combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws...." Only a government based on popular consent could secure natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, to fight for American independence was to fight on behalf of one's own natural rights (those same rights enumerated by Locke).