THE SECRET SERVICE

Ironically, it was the first U.S. president to be assassinated, Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Secret Service into existence in early 1865. The Secret Service formed on July 5, 1865, after Lincoln's death. Its original function was to investigate counterfeiting, opium smuggling, extortion, racketeering and other cases assigned as needed. Under presidents in the late 1800s and 1900s Secret Service agents also investigated wartime espionage, land fraud and government corruption in application of the Homestead Act. Eventually these agents were transferred to the Department of Justice to form the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), assuming duties previously assigned to the Secret Service. The Secret Service finally assumed the duty of protecting the president in 1901. However, Congress did not vote for funding of this role until 1906 and make it permanent until 1951, after the assassination of three U.S. presidents: Lincoln (on April 14, 1865), James Garfield (who was shot on July 2, 1881 but died from related infection and internal bleeding on September 19, 1881) and William McKinley (in September 1901). Seeking to interact with their supporters and to maintain confidentiality in interactions with certain contacts and advisors U.S. presidents have on occasion ordered Secret Service agents to back off. The tragic results of this have been the assassinations of McKinley in 1901 and John F. Kennedy, in Dallas on November 22, 1963. JFK had ordered Secret Service agents away from the corners of his car in that infamous Dallas motorcade. [Source: It Seemed Like A Good Idea ... A Compendium of Great Historical Fiascoes, http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/, http://www.secretservice.gov/history.shtml]