Which act did the colonists view as a direct violation of their rights regarding representation?

The Stamp Act was perceived by the colonists as a direct violation of their rights regarding representation because it imposed a direct tax on a wide array of printed materials, including newspapers, legal documents, and licenses, without their consent. The underlying issue was that British Parliament enacted this law without any colonial representation, which fueled the colonists' rallying cry of "no taxation without representation." This act represented a fundamental challenge to the colonists' understanding of their rights as Englishmen, who believed they should not be taxed unless they had representatives in the governing body that imposed the tax.

The other acts mentioned, while also contentious, were viewed differently in terms of representation. The Declaratory Act asserted Parliament's authority to legislate for the colonies, but it followed the repeal of the Stamp Act and did not impose a new tax. The Townshend Act imposed taxes on goods imported into the colonies and was met with resistance, but was not as directly connected to the concept of representation as the Stamp Act. Similarly, the Tea Act aimed to help the struggling British East India Company by allowing it to sell tea directly to the colonies, potentially undercutting colonial merchants, but it was not primarily viewed as a taxation issue in the same vein as the Stamp Act.