"During the nineteenth century, mankind came close to economic freedom..." - Ayn Rand
"During the nineteenth century, mankind came close to economic freedom, for the first and only time in history. Observe the results. Observe also that the degree of a country's freedom from government control, was the degree of its progress. America was the freest and achieved the most." - Ayn Rand
By 1805 we had exclusive water rights given by government to the Livingstons in New York's Harbors. We had a single industry (whiskey production) paying the bulk of the taxes. Both of these were things we separated from England because of.
The Whiskey production crew never took the grievances before the supreme court and we still have specific industries and activities (and always have) that carry the tax burden.
Cornelius Vanderbilt on the other hand saw the unconstitutional nature of the Livingstons Exclusive contract. A competitor to the Livingstons, Gibbons was reach out to and they came to an agreement. Vanderbilt would flaunt the current law, and Gibbons would financially back Vanderbilt to push the case to the supreme court.
In 1815 Gibbons Vrs Ogden hit the Supreme Court and unlike what would happen to Radio in the early 20th century the court ruled that it was unconstitutional (and reprehensible) for the government to regulate or allow control of waterways to go to any single person.
This became the flavor of government and more specifically the courts until post civil war era.
We had what we did largely because the constitution protected it, the courts of the day protected it and people were willing to risk Jail to get the freedom they wanted. I think the last item the most important.