Until the Civil War, the Federal Government exercised relatively little power over the people. The only federal official the average person saw was the post-master.
This is another point I often make. Abraham Lincoln set the standard for Federal Domination of the States, and we have never recovered from it. Much of our current misery can be traced directly back to his usurpation of many powers during the Civil War. He established the precedent, and others followed. Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, FDR, Johnson, etc.