The Secret Service: A Brief History

On April 14, 1865, just hours before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the creation of the agency we know as the Secret Service. But he did not create the agency to protect himself or future presidents. It began as a bureau of the Treasury Department, its mission to combat counterfeiting.

In the wake of the American Civil War, counterfeit currency made up an estimated one-third of the money in circulation. And the Secret Service was President Lincoln's attempt to get that situation under control.

Today, however, this is not what we think of when we think of the Secret Service. In film and in the press, we see the service in its most visible and high-profile role: presidential protector. But how did an agency with roots in the Treasury Department get that job? And what are we missing when all we see is security?

The Secret Service started out under the umbrella of the Treasury Department, but today it exists within the Department of Homeland Security, which didn't come to be until the early 2000s. At its core, the service is an investigative agency. So what sets it apart from, say, the FBI?

The FBI's investigative purview is broader than the Secret Service's. The latter focuses on financial crime. The Secret Service is America's first line of defense against counterfeiters and financial criminals.

The service does work in four key areas:

Economic safeguarding: When the service was created, its function was to combat counterfeiting. Today it still works to "protect the integrity of U.S. currency."

Cyber investigations: The Secret Service investigates crimes like ATM skimming, credit card fraud, wire and bank fraud, computer network breaches, and ransomware attacks.

Public safety: The Secret Service helps to assess various threats to the public.

National security: The Secret Service offers protection to world leaders, security during major events, and a presence at various locations.

While the U.S. Secret Service is charged by law with the safety of the nation's chief executive, it is also responsible for protecting the financial system and the public from a variety of threats.

The Secret Service and Presidential Protection

So why was an agency created to investigate financial crime tasked with protecting the president? Let's talk about the governmental landscape in 1901.

William McKinley, who took office in 1897, was in his second presidential term. For 36 years, the Secret Service had been doing its job protecting the value of the American dollar. The United States didn't have much in the way of national security or nationwide investigative services. The Secret Service was one of the government's limited resources in that area, and the FBI didn't exist yet.

When President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, it was the Secret Service that was tapped to start protecting presidents and their families. In 1906, President Roosevelt brought in Charles Bonaparte, Napoleon's grand nephew, as the attorney general. For a while, Charles would borrow Secret Service agents when he needed investigators. But in 1908, Congress decided that other federal agencies could no longer borrow Secret Service members. Only then did Charles make moves to create another investigative crime-fighting agency, combining nine previously borrowed Secret Service investigators with 25 new hires to create what would become known as the FBI. The Secret Service was then able to focus its efforts without lending out its agents.

In the years since, the responsibilities of the women and men in black have extended far beyond providing security detail. Just as we don't watch researchers at work in labs or accountants that work at their desks, no one is watching the Secret Service investigate financial crime. It's a quieter duty than presidential protection, which is by nature the most visible of the agency's responsibilities.

Today, the Secret Service and the FBI exist as separate entities that serve a similar purpose. The Secret Service has retained its two charges, and its crime-fighting efforts are protecting the general U.S. population in ways we can't always see.

The Secret Service: A Force for Good

The Secret Service is a unique and important agency. It is a force for good in the world, protecting the financial system and the public from a variety of threats. The service is dedicated to its mission, and its agents are highly skilled and professional.

The Secret Service is a valuable asset to the United States. It is an agency that we can be proud of, and we should all be grateful for its service.