Should the American colonies have declared independence?

This question is really more of a personal moral determination. The American colonists had valid reasons for desiring independence and the British had valid reasons to dismiss these desires. The colonists' main complaints revolved around an economic issue and a philosophical issue. The economic issue was centered around the various taxes that the British had imposed on the colonies and the various trade restrictions that the British had implemented to ensure maximum profits for their colonial holdings. These measures raised the costs of importing goods to the American colonies, which raised the purchase prices for many goods. The trade restrictions prevented the colonies from sufficiently raising prices for exports, which left the colonial economy in a bad situation. The colonists were squeezed by decreasing profits and increasing costs of living, making them unhappy with the British. This unhappiness was especially prevalent among the merchant class, which the Founding Fathers belonged to.
By contrast, the British believed it was important to protect the colonial empire's profits. Since the colonies were either set up through royal charters that reported directly to the king, or through companies that focused on repaying investors, colonial America was largely viewed as an extractive operation. The British did not view the American colonies as land for creating a comfortable life, but rather as an investment that needed to maximize its value. Additionally, many of the taxes that were imposed on the American colonies were meant to recoup debts that were taken on in order to fight wars that were largely instigated by the colonists. From the British perspective, it was unfair that the colonists largely created the conflict with France that became the French and Indian War and then rejected plans to pay for the additional cost to Britain of having to fight that war.
The philosophical complaints largely revolved around insufficient representation in Parliament and a dislike of the royal prerogatives that forced colonists to quarter soldiers during peace time and allow searches of their property based on a mere suspicion. These measures led the colonists to feel that Britain was oppressive and helped make the idea of independence more popular. However, these measures were not unreasonable to the British. The search and seizure rules in the colonies were not substantially different than the rules in England. Where searches were allowed on less suspicion, this was largely due to increasing tensions, which led the British governors to suspect that sedition was spreading. The quartering of troops was also a response to the threat of revolution. In other words, the actions that most angered some of the colonists were (from Britain's perspective) largely taken as a precaution to tamp down the potential revolution.
Whether America was right to declare independence, therefore, rests substantially on which perspective one looks at.