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The US government was not weak or non-existent until the 1900s. It was actually quite aggressive and strong, relatively speaking, from roughly 1789 onwards, and especially after the Civil War in the 1860s. 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. |