There was no central government at all. That is the point. It didn’t exist. It flat did not exist.
The government was centralized during the Progressive Era, leading to what we have today. That centralization did not exist in the 1880s and through pretty much all of the 1890s as well. And the 1870s too.
Previous to the Progressive Era the government (mostly) followed the model setup by the Founders for a generally de-centralized federalism.
All roads lead back to progressivism. Progressivism is America’s cancer.