Concord and Liberty

Chesterton, in contrasting Dickens' attitude toward France and Italy with his attitude toward the United States, gives an excellent definition of patriotism.

But with America he could feel -- and fear. There he could hate, because he could love. There he could feel not the past alone nor the present, but the future also; and, like all brave men, when he saw the future he was a little afraid of it. For of all tests by which the good citizen and strong reformer can be distinguished from the vague faddist or the inhuman sceptic, I know no better test than this -- that the unreal reformer sees in front of him one certain future, the future of his fad; while the real reformer sees before him ten or twenty futures among which his country must choose, and may, in some dreadful hour, choose the wrong one. The true patriot is always doubtful of victory; because he knows that he is dealing with a living thing; a thing with free will. To be certain of free will is to be uncertain of success. Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens; American Notes

Chesterton shows that it was just because Dickens had such great hopes for America that he criticized it so strongly. I think that Dickens was right in this passage from American Notes:

The Post Office is a very compact and very beautiful building. In one of the departments, among a collection of rare and curious articles, are deposited the presents which have been made from time to time to the American ambassadors at foreign courts by the various potentates to whom they were the accredited agents of the Republic; gifts which by the law they are not permitted to retain. I confess that I looked upon this as a very painful exhibition, and one by no means flattering to the national standard of honesty and honour. That can scarcely be a high state of moral feeling which imagines a gentleman of repute and station, likely to be corrupted, in the discharge of his duty, by the present of a snuff-box or a richly-mounted sword or an Eastern shawl; and surely the Nation who reposes confidence in her appointed servants, is likely to be better served, than she who makes them the subject of such very mean and paltry suspicions.--American Notes, Chapter VIII, 'Washington. The Legislature. And the President's House'

This has an archaic ring, but Dickens is correct in viewing the distrust towards public servants as reflecting on the character of the distrustful public.