<P> This clause, sometimes referred to as the Guarantee Clause, has long been at the forefront of the debate about the rights of citizens vis - à - vis the government . The Guarantee Clause mandates that all U.S. states must be grounded in republican principles such as the consent of the governed . By ensuring that all states must have the same basic republican philosophy, the Guarantee Clause is one of several portions of the Constitution which mandates symmetric federalism between the states . </P> <P> The Constitution does not explain what exactly constitutes a republican form of government . There are, however, several places within it where the principles behind the concept are articulated . Article Seven, the last and shortest of the Constitution's original articles, stipulated that the Constitution, before it could become established as the "Law of the Land", must obtain the consent of the people by being ratified by popular conventions within the several states . Additionally, as it required the ratification of only nine states in order to become established, rather than the unanimous consent required by the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution was more republican, as it protected the majority from effectively being ruled or held captive by the minority . </P> <P> The Federalist Papers also give us some insight as to the intent of the Founders . A republican form of government is distinguished from a direct democracy, which the Founding Fathers had no intentions of entering . As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10, "Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths ." </P> <P> A political crisis in 1840s Rhode Island, the Dorr Rebellion, forced the Supreme Court to rule on the meaning of this clause . At the time, the Rhode Island constitution was the old royal charter established in the 17th century . By the 1840s, only 40% of the state's free white males were enfranchised . An attempt to hold a popular convention to write a new constitution was declared insurrection by the charter government, and the convention leaders were arrested . One of them brought suit in federal court, arguing that Rhode Island's government was not "republican" in character, and that his arrest (along with all of the government's other acts) was invalid . In Luther v. Borden, the Court held that the determination of whether a state government is a legitimate republican form as guaranteed by the Constitution is a political question to be resolved by the Congress . In effect, the court held the clause to be non-justiciable . </P>

Is it possible for a new state to be created from part of an existing state or states