Yet the Constitution begins differently, by announcing a decision: we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, do ordain and establish this particular constitution. One document announces a “proposition,” as Lincoln called it – that all have equal rights. The other document establishes a fact: “We the people” will be governed in this particular way, and in no other. All citizens, therefore, share in this responsibility, which makes of citizenship not simply a guarantee of rights, but an office, with a set of duties to perform.
What Is American Citizenship?
These days, the idea of citizenship immediately calls to mind the idea of rights: we have rights because we are citizens of a rights-protecting nation. Behind this idea is the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain “unalienable” rights.
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