Reform or Revolution?

In "Reform or Revolution?," Mr. John S. Hittell brings a heavy indictment against the institutions of the United States of America, sparing neither the Federal nor the State Constitutions. The political evils in the United States have long been recognized on both sides of the Atlantic, but they have been too much regarded as the inseparable incidents of a young and growing nation, to be discarded as the follies and indiscretions of the young man which are left behind with advancing manhood. Such is not Mr. Hittell's view. Although frequently treated in the press and in the more permanent and advanced literature, they have not yet, he maintains, been collected and explained in a comprehensive manner so as to give a true idea of their magnitude and dangerous character, and consequently they have been treated by American authors, journalists, and officials as relatively unimportant. Mr. Hittell claims to prove that the Government of the United States is a disgrace to the American people, and that no other enlightened nation fails so lamentably to perform its duties of defining and protecting the rights of its citizens in matters relating to person and property. His main charge against the Constitution is its divided sovereignty. The Federal Government is neither national nor sovereign in the true sense of the word. With the exception of certain foreign and inter-State affairs of subordinate importance, it has no real power over the matters affecting the life of the nation. The results of this anomalous state of things are State treasons, double citizenship, entailing numerous hardships and loss of rights and property, strikes culminating in open rebellion, loss of life and property; lynch-law, with all its attendant horrible outrages, entirely unpunished and unfettered, and molestation of foreigners, whom the Federal Government finds itself powerless to protect or to recompense.--"The Westminster Review," Volume 155