the Virginia Bill of Rights on June 12, 1776, and were reflected in the clauses of the Declaration of Independence denouncing the King because he had made judges dependent upon his will alone for their tenure and their salaries. It took courage for judges to refuse writs of assistance when demanded by customs officers, since they held their commissions at the will of the Crown and were dependent for their salaries upon the revenues collected by the customs commissioners. The commissioners themselves were persistent in their determination for general writs--since they were under constant pressure from England. The American determination to keep the courts free from executive control grows in no small degree out of this experience.
The British taxation of the colonies was another cause that led up to the American Revolution. Parliament paid little attention to the colonial protests against the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act in 1765. The passage of the Stamp Act, however, was the signal for a full-scale debate over the extent of parliamentary authority over the colonies. In early 1765, even before the Stamp act has been passed, various British writers rushed into print with pamphlets and newspaper essays denying the validity of the constitutional claims of the American assemblies and defending Parliament's right to tax the colonies. The prevailing
...