Article I

This Charter is built on the ideas encapsulated in the second and third sentences of the Declaration of Independence: equality of all persons, natural rights, and the idea that the legitimate function and purpose of government is to secure those rights.

Article I establishes a foundation for a framework built on those principles. It positively asserts that citizens are the sole source of authority and that the government only holds those powers that citizens delegate to it. It defines personhood, the collective body of the people, and the smaller body within the people who are the citizens. It limits personhood to humans. It explicitly states that associations of various kinds do not have constitutional rights or powers, though the people within them do. It also makes a declaration about associations with sufficient power, especially coercive power, calling them quasi-governments, and it limits those organizations in the same way that it limits the government.

The article goes on to explain natural rights as preexisting government, civil rights as belonging to all people, giving legal shape and weight to natural rights, and finally, civic rights as exclusive to the citizens.

This Charter establishes a democratic republic, which requires civic engagement. It expressly acknowledges the sovereignty of citizens. Then, it affirms that such a government must have the active participation of the citizens. It demands the performance of civic duties and conditions civic powers - the power to vote, the power to hold office, and the power to reform government - on active participation in the work of a democratic system of government. This Charter clearly states that these powers are merely powers; they are not rights, and they are contingent upon participation.