from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT. A government in the republican form; a government of
the people; it is usually put in opposition to a monarchical or aristocratic
government.
2. The fourth section of the fourth article of the constitution,
directs that "the United States shall guaranty to every state in the Union a
republican form of government." The form of government is to be guaranteed,
which supposes a form already established, and this is the republican form
of government the United States have undertaken to protect. See Story,
Const. Sec. 1807.