When legislators (lawmakers) try to destroy or take away the property of the people, or try to reduce them to slavery, they put
themselves into a state of war with the people who can then refuse to obey the laws. When legislators try to gain or give someone else absolute power over lives, liberties, and property of the people, they abuse the power which the people had put into their hands. According to Locke, what may happen when legislators destroy someone’s property? People may become enslaved to the government. People may stop doing what the government says. People may give the government more power. People may decide to return to the state of nature.
The term autocrat was formerly coined as a favorable feature of the ruler, and now the term autocracy represents the system of government in which social and political power is concentrated in the hands of one person.
Declaratory Act, (1766), declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. It stated that the British Parliament’s taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain.
