The US Secret Service doesn't get to tell Congress "no"

Textile from the Pan-American Exposition honoring President William McKinley, who was assassinated there in 1901, which is framed in my home.

The 27 year old stepped forward towards the outstretched and friendly hand of the 25th President of the United States.

He was an angry young man, who had been bullied and marginalized during a period of economic and political upheaval that created instability, uncertainty, volatility and transformation. The old world was giving way to a new one. Leon Czolgosz found his way to political extremism, drew his handgun, and fired two rounds into the stomach of President William McKinley.

The President would die eight days later. He was the last combat veteran of the US Civil War to reach the Presidency, and remains the only Commander-in-Chief to have served as a Private in the US Army. He served valiantly through four years of war, survived Antietam and was breveted to the rank of Major. He served on the staff of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, who would become his mentor and lifelong friend. Hayes would be elected to the Presidency in the disputed and tumultuous election of 1876.

McKinley became the third President of the United States assassinated over the 36 years between Appomattox and the first years of what would become known to historians as the “American Century.” The murders of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley shocked the nation, and led to Congress officially directing the US Secret Service to provide protection for the President of the United States.

The Presidency is a dangerous business. The first attempted murder of an American President was against Andrew Jackson. John F. Kennedy was assassinated while FDR, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford were all shot at. Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt were both shot, and serious plots and attempts have been made against former Presidents in modern times.

The US Secret Service is not a Praetorian Guard. It does not serve a person; it protects an office. Though the modern Secret Service has expansive protection duties, their preeminent charge is the President of the United States of America. But importantly, the office transcends the person.