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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Marking Constitution Day on Tuesday, Wilkes University History Professor John Hepp started his lecture on the nation&#8217;s founding document &#8212; adopted in 1787 &#8212; by hearkening back 11 earlier, when &#8220;people started shooting&#8221; in Massachusetts, the first military engagement of the American Revolutionary War.</p><p>The question, Hepp said, is &#8220;Why the British Army went into the countryside,&#8221; riling colonists enough to fight? The answer, &#8220;To take arms away from the local militia.&#8221; The locals were not exactly supportive of the crown at the time, and the Redcoats logically became concerned that colonial weapons would be turned on them.</p><p>The experience of government troops coming to take a local militia&#8217;s guns, Hepp argued, was the basis for the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution: &#8220;A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.&#8221;</p><p>In fact, he said, most of the original Constitution closely reflected concerns about what the writers saw as King George III&#8217;s usurpation of government authority and people&#8217;s rights. Article I, Hepp noted, has 10 sometimes-lengthy sections that &#8220;put in an incredibly strong legislature&#8221; while the much shorter Article II has only four sections in creating the executive branch of the president, and one of those &#8220;is about how to remove him.&#8221;</p><p>In creating the Supreme Court, Article III guaranteed one of only three civil rights protections in the seven original articles, limiting the charge of treason because, Hepp said, the King had used the allegation liberally to quiet dissenters.</p><p>The Bill of Rights, Hepp added, came along as people felt uneasy about the limited civil protections in the seven articles. The first 10 amendments show the issues of concern stemming from what the writers saw as a trampling of civil rights by the monarchy, including freedom of speech, press and religion, the right to assemble, protection against unreasonable search and seizure, guarantees of due process in things like land seizure, military use of civilian property and criminal proceedings.</p><p>&#8220;There are 23 separate rights guaranteed across 10 amendments,&#8221; Hepp said, &#8220;I believe each and every one can be linked back to the experiences of the American people in the prior 15 years.&#8221;</p><p>The colonists felt strongly that &#8220;The British had knowingly violated or just ignored as a matter of course those rights.&#8221;</p><p>Hepp&#8217;s lecture was one of several events held throughout the region on what was officially declared &#8220;Constitution Day and Citizenship Day&#8221; by an act of Congress in 2005. The move was spearheaded by then-U.S. Sen. Robert Burd, a Democrat from West Virginia who was in office for 51 years from 1959 to his death in 2010. The law requires all schools and colleges receiving federal funding to hold an educational program pertaining to the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Constitution day lecturer John Hepp discusses how the American Revolution shaped the constitution. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091819constitution1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Constitution day lecturer John Hepp discusses how the American Revolution shaped the constitution. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091819constitution2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Constitution day lecturer John Hepp discusses how the American Revolution shaped the constitution. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091819constitution2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Constitution day lecturer John Hepp discusses how the American Revolution shaped the constitution. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091819constitution3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes University students listen to Constitution day lecturer John Hepp discusses how the American Revolution shaped the constitution. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_TTL091819constitution3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Wilkes University students listen to Constitution day lecturer John Hepp discusses how the American Revolution shaped the constitution. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes Prof on Constitution Day: Revolutionary War shaped founding document