Evaluate the early efforts of government to regulate businesses. (1860-1890)

I would say that, generally speaking, the US government was more interested in supporting and encouraging business growth than in regulating it. The Gilded Age was dominated by "laissez faire" economics, and government tended to thus act in favor of big business interests. Corporations did not grow larger and larger in spite of government policies, but were actively aided by the hands-off approach which government tended to adopt in its economic policy. In fact, it should be noted, the when anti-trust law was first invoked, it was used as a weapon against Labor Unions.
This being said, you did have political movements like the Grangers which were far more hostile towards Big Business. The Grangers used block voting as a tool to set up railroad regulations on the State Level. Nevertheless, in general, during the time period you're referring to, governmental policy was defined by its unwillingness to intervene with businesses. Regulation would really take shape later.

The attempts to regulate businesses between 1860 and 1890 were mostly unsuccessful. While workers formed some unions during this time, these unions had very little power. Most strikes were unsuccessful because the government and many judges supported the actions of big businesses. Many of these strikes also were violent ones, which further eroded support for controlling the actions of businesses.
When the federal government did pass laws to regulate businesses, the laws were mostly neglected. The Sherman Antitrust Act was designed to make trusts illegal. However, it was so vaguely worded that the courts really didn’t act upon the provisions of the law. Instead of decreasing the number of monopolies, after this law was passed, more monopolies were formed. There were various attempts to regulate the practices of the railroad companies, many of which seemed to benefit big businesses while harming farmers and small business owners. Most of these attempts failed or were ruled unconstitutional, such as in the case of Wabash v Illinois. The federal government did create the Interstate Commerce Commission, which tried to control the actions of the railroad companies.
http://www.linfo.org/sherman.html

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-now/essays/rise-industrial-america-1877-1900

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=49