If the central government had shared this weakness, the American political organism would have already dissolved in violence and bloodshed.
The local authorities retain under the American Federal organization many of the primary functions of government.

They preserve order, administer civil and criminal justice, collect taxes for general and local purposes, and are directly or indirectly responsible for the system of public education.

If it can be proved that the state governments have exercised any of these functions in an efficient manner, that proof certainly does not lie upon the surface of the facts.
The provisions they have made for keeping order have been utterly inadequate, and have usually broken down when any serious reason for disorder has existed.

A certain part of this violence is, moreover, the immediate result of the failure of American criminal justice.

The criminal laws have been so carefully framed and so admirably expounded for the benefit of the lawyers and their clients, the malefactors, that a very large proportion of American murderers escape the proper penalty of their acts; and these dilatory and dubious judicial methods are undoubtedly one effective cause of the prevalence of lynching in the South.