| The author of the article is inaccurate. The Declaration of Independence made it quite clear the reasons colonists separated from Britain. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transc... The British government was forcing colonists to house their troops, which allowed them "free" housing and food. It also acted as a mechanism to restrict free speech and to spy on the colonists. Who would speak against what the King and government was doing if you had his soldiers living in your house? The British government was also eliminating laws the colonists had made for themselves, and instantiating his own. The government was kidnapping people, taking them overseas to be tried for false crimes. The government started domestic insurrections. The government also regulated the colonists' trade with other countries, trying to enrich itself and pay for its irresponsible Keynesian "stimulus". Therefore the government also imposed taxes on the colonists, without giving them any representation in parliament. The government actually tried to compromise with a lower tax, but the colonists were unwilling to have no say in their government, hence the Boston Tea Party (a demonstration against taxes). The government also created a multitude of new government offices and harassed the colonists with regulations of every sort. The government also hired mercenaries to terrorize towns, causing great damage and death. They additionally conscripted colonists into their army to fight their own towns. All of this the colonists called tyranny, and you can read more in the Declaration. So the colonists were not revolting because government was not spending enough. They decided to form their own government which was only funded by import duties (and in the early times, taxes on "vice" products like snuff). No income tax, no social security tax, no death tax, no gift tax, nothing. It was this practically non-existent government (yet a respect and protection of private property) that allowed the United States to go from a 3rd world nation to the most powerful nation on earth. By 1900, the US was a scientific and manufacturing powerhouse. Permanent income taxes and a central bank would not come around till 1913. |
The first US government, founded under the Articles of Confederation, ended in abysmal failure only a few years after it was formed because it was "practically non-existent" when its own army revolted (the Whiskey Rebellion). This resulted in the US Constitution, which dramatically strengthened the powers of the federal government, and the Bill of Rights, which placed some limits on the powers of the federal government, but essentially no limits on the powers of the state government. (Some of those limits would be extended to the state governments after the Civil War via the 14th Amendment).
Nor were the early years of US history a libertarian wonderland. Despite the Bill of Rights, the First Congress passed numerous laws restricting free speech, including for example, the Sedition Act, which prohibited any criticisms of the government that could be deemed "scandalous" or having the intent to bring the US government, Congress, or the President "into contempt or disrepute." Almost all states had laws restricting when businesses could be open, and almost all states had morality-based laws that many people would find offensive by today's standards. Many roads, bridges, and many waterways were subject to private monopolies granting their owners the right to levy tolls.
Though the Industrial Revolution began around the same time as the founding of the U.S., the US economy remained largely agrarian until the 1840s, when the completion of a national water transportation system along the Great Lakes powered industrial growth in the Northeast.