  We present a formulation for the construction of first order equations which
describe particles with spin, in the context of a manifestly covariant
relativistic theory governed by an invariant evolution parameter; one obtains a
consistent quantized formalism dealing with off-shell particles with spin. Our
basic requirement is that the second order equation in the theory is of the
Schr\"{o}dinger-Stueckelberg type, which exhibits features of both the
Klein-Gordon and Schr\"{o}dinger equations. This requirement restricts the
structure of the first order equation, in particular, to a chiral form. One
thus obtains, in a natural way, a theory of chiral form for massive particles,
which may contain both left and right chiralities, or just one of them. We
observe that by iterating the first order system, we are able to obtain second
order forms containing the transverse and longitudinal momentum relative to a
time-like vector $t_{\mu}t^{\mu}=-1$ used to maintain covariance of the theory.
This time-like vector coincides with the one used by Horwitz, Piron, and Reuse
to obtain an invariant positive definite space-time scalar product, which
permits the construction of an induced representation for states of a particle
with spin. We discuss the currents and continuity equations, and show that
these equations of motion and their currents are closely related to the spin
and convection parts of the Gordon decomposition of the Dirac current. The
transverse and longitudinal aspects of the particle are complementary, and can
be treated in a unified manner using a tensor product Hilbert space.
Introducing the electromagnetic field we find an equation which gives rise to
the correct gyromagnetic ratio, and is fully Hermitian under the proposed
scalar product. Finally, we show that the original structure of Dirac's
