Final answer:
Historical opposition to direct taxes was due to their potential to become despotic, with the colonists primarily objecting to taxation without actual representation and lack of control over the spending of tax revenues. Colonial assemblies expanded their power during the eighteenth century, and the colonies demanded actual representation in Parliament.
Step-by-step explanation:
False. Historical opposition to direct taxes was premised on the belief that they had the potential to become despotic and destructive to liberty and property.
In the period leading to the American Revolution, the colonists primarily objected to the nature of taxation without representation and the way tax revenues were spent, not to the idea of taxation itself.
Colonists were more troubled by the lack of actual representation in the British Parliament. They wanted a say in how their taxes were levied and used.
During the eighteenth century, colonial assemblies expanded their power and influence, even having the power of the purse. However, new taxes imposed to pay British officials in the colonies threatened this influence.
These new impositions were seen as a direct challenge to the autonomy of colonial governance and an infringement on the colonies' right to self-taxation.
The colonies made clear distinctions between internal and external taxation, as well as between taxes designed to regulate trade versus those intended to raise revenue. They demanded actual representation in the legislative body that taxed them, rather than what was termed 'virtual representation'.