Throughout the history of the United States, the office of the President has been both revered and, at times, dangerously targeted. Sadly, four presidents have been assassinated in the nation’s history, a stark reminder of the risks associated with leadership. Beyond these tragic deaths, attempts have been made on the lives of other presidents, presidents-elect, and even former presidents, highlighting a persistent threat that has shaped the evolution of presidential protection.
The timeline of actual attempts is sobering:
- Andrew Jackson, January 30, 1835.
- Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1865. Died April 15, 1865.
- James A. Garfield, July 2, 1881. Died September 19, 1881.
- William McKinley, September 6, 1901. Died September 14, 1901.
- Theodore Roosevelt, October 14, 1912. Wounded; recovered.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, February 15, 1933.
- Harry S. Truman, November 1, 1950.
- John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963. Died that day.
Statistically, attempts have been made on the lives of one in every five American presidents. Of those, one in every nine presidents has been killed. Focusing on the period after 1865, the numbers are even more concerning: attempts on one in every four presidents, and successful assassinations of one in every five. The latter half of the 20th century alone saw three attacks on sitting presidents.
It wasn’t until the assassination of William McKinley in 1901 that continuous, systematic protection for the President was established. Prior to this, protection was inconsistent and reactive. While the need for presidential safety had been evident from the early days of the republic, concrete action was delayed until a series of tragic events forced a change. Understanding the development of presidential protection over the years is crucial to appreciating both the ongoing dangers and the historical reluctance to implement necessary safeguards.
Before the Civil War: A Time of Minimal Security
In the early years of the United States, there was a notable lack of concern regarding presidential safety. Protective measures were minimal, reflecting a different era and perhaps a different understanding of the risks. While presidents were not immune to threats and abuse, they often dismissed them and moved freely without security details. Famously, Thomas Jefferson walked unescorted from his boarding house to the Capitol on his inauguration day to take the oath of office. Washington D.C. itself lacked a formal police force until 1805, when a high constable and 40 deputy constables were appointed by the mayor.
John Quincy Adams, despite receiving numerous threatening letters and even facing a personal threat at the White House from a court-martialed Army sergeant, did not request additional protection. He continued his habit of taking solitary walks and early morning swims in the Potomac River.
Andrew Jackson, a particularly polarizing figure, received a high volume of threatening letters. However, he famously disregarded these threats, often endorsing them and sending them to the Washington Globe for publication, demonstrating his defiance. In May 1833, Jackson was assaulted by Robert B. Randolph, a former Navy lieutenant. Jackson declined to press charges, and this incident is not typically categorized as an assassination attempt, as Randolph’s intent seemed to be assault rather than serious harm.
President Andrew Jackson, the target of the first recorded assassination attempt against a US President.
However, a more serious incident occurred less than two years later. On January 30, 1835, as President Jackson exited the east portico of the Capitol, Richard Lawrence, an English-born house painter, confronted him. Lawrence fired two pistols at Jackson, but both weapons misfired. Lawrence was quickly apprehended and deemed not guilty by reason of insanity in court. He spent the remainder of his life in jails and mental institutions. Despite this close call, the attack on Jackson did not immediately lead to increased presidential protection.
Martin Van Buren, Jackson’s successor, often walked alone to church and rode horseback unaccompanied in the woods near the White House. In August 1842, after an intoxicated painter threw rocks at President John Tyler while he was walking on the White House grounds, Congress passed an act to establish an auxiliary watch to protect public and private property in Washington. This force, consisting of a captain and 15 men, was more focused on safeguarding the White House itself, which had been vandalized on occasion, rather than directly protecting the President’s person.
Lincoln: The Civil War and a Fatal Security Failure
Even before Abraham Lincoln assumed office, there were credible concerns about plots to kidnap or assassinate him. Extremist opponents of Lincoln reportedly considered drastic measures to prevent his inauguration, and evidence suggests a plot to attack him as he traveled through Baltimore on his way to Washington.
Unprecedented security measures were taken for Lincoln’s inauguration, perhaps the most elaborate seen up to that point. Soldiers were stationed at strategic locations throughout Washington D.C., along the procession route, and at the Capitol. Plainclothes armed men were integrated into the crowds. Lincoln, riding with outgoing President Buchanan in a carriage, was surrounded by such a dense formation of soldiers that he was almost entirely hidden from public view. Security at the Capitol during the inauguration ceremony was equally stringent and successful.
President Abraham Lincoln, whose assassination highlighted the dire need for improved presidential security measures.
Throughout his presidency, Lincoln lived under constant threat. The volume of threatening letters remained high during the Civil War, but they were largely ignored. Investigations into a few letters yielded no results. Lincoln himself was resistant to personal protection, often rejecting guards or attempting to evade them. This reluctance to accept protection has been a common trait among many American presidents, who often view it as an unwelcome necessity, conflicting with their desire for personal privacy and connection with the public. Lincoln, with his strong instincts for personal freedom and public engagement, particularly chafed at security measures implemented by friends, police, and the military.
Presidential protection during the Civil War fluctuated depending on perceived threats and Lincoln’s willingness to accept safeguards. Military units were frequently assigned to guard the White House and accompany the President on his travels. Ward H. Lamon, a friend of Lincoln’s who became Marshal of the District of Columbia in 1861, personally took charge of the President’s security, providing guards. However, Lincoln’s lack of cooperation frustrated Lamon to the point of resignation, though Lincoln refused to accept it. Late in the war, in November 1864, four Washington policemen were assigned to the White House as personal bodyguards. Lincoln reluctantly tolerated them, insisting they remain as inconspicuous as possible.
In the final days of the war, rumors of assassination attempts against Lincoln persisted. John Wilkes Booth, a renowned actor and fervent Confederate sympathizer, had been plotting with others for months to kidnap the President. The Confederacy’s collapse appears to have solidified his resolve to kill Lincoln. Booth’s opportunity arose on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, when he learned of the President’s attendance at a play at Ford’s Theatre that evening. Patrolman John F. Parker of the Washington Police was assigned as Lincoln’s bodyguard for the evening, a choice that proved disastrously inadequate. Parker was instructed to remain on guard in the corridor outside the presidential box throughout the play. However, Parker abandoned his post to watch the performance and later even left the theater to have a drink at a nearby saloon.
Parker’s dereliction of duty left President Lincoln completely unprotected. Shortly after 10 p.m., Booth gained access to the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the head. The wound was mortal, and President Lincoln died the following morning, April 15. A detachment of troops apprehended Booth on April 26 at a farm near Bowling Green, Virginia. Booth sustained a fatal gunshot wound during the capture and died a few hours later. In June, a military tribunal tried and sentenced four of Booth’s associates to death and others to prison terms.
Lincoln’s assassination exposed the utter inadequacy of presidential protection at the time. A congressional committee conducted a thorough investigation into the assassination. However, reflecting a continued reluctance to embrace robust security measures, the committee made no recommendations for improved presidential protection in the future. Neither the President’s office nor government departments requested enhanced protective measures. This lack of urgency might have stemmed from a belief that Lincoln’s assassination was an isolated event tied to the unique circumstances of the Civil War, unlikely to be repeated against future presidents.
The Need for Protection Further Demonstrated: Garfield and McKinley
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, soldiers assigned by the War Department continued to guard the White House and its grounds. Metropolitan Washington police assisted on special occasions to maintain order and manage crowds. However, the permanent Metropolitan Police guard was reduced to just three officers, assigned solely to White House grounds protection. There was no dedicated, trained unit responsible for the personal safety of the President. Presidents following Lincoln continued to move about Washington largely unattended, mirroring the practices of their pre-Civil War predecessors. White House security remained reliant on doormen, who lacked specialized training for guard duty.
This lack of personal presidential protection again became tragically apparent with the shooting of President James A. Garfield in 1881. Garfield’s assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, described himself as a “lawyer, theologian, and politician.” He delusionally believed that his self-proclaimed efforts to support Garfield’s election in 1880 entitled him to a consulship in Europe. Bitterly disappointed by the President’s repeated rejections of his written requests for an appointment and driven by megalomania, Guiteau resolved to kill Garfield.
President James A. Garfield, whose assassination further underscored the critical need for presidential security.
Guiteau, 38 years old at the time, had a history of instability and failure. He had been an unsuccessful itinerant lecturer and evangelist, a lawyer, and an aspiring politician. While his resentment over Garfield’s failure to appoint him consul in Paris and his verbal attacks on Garfield for lacking support for the “Stalwart” faction of the Republican Party were evident, these may not fully explain his motivations. At his trial, Guiteau testified that the “Deity” had commanded him to remove the President. There is no evidence he confided his assassination plans to anyone, and he appeared to have no close friends. His attack on the President occurred under circumstances where escape was virtually impossible. Guiteau’s family history included mental illness, and he seemingly believed in divine inspiration.
Guiteau later testified that he had three opportunities to attack the President in the three weeks preceding the actual shooting, all instances where Garfield was unguarded. He acted on his intent on the morning of July 2, 1881. As President Garfield walked to a train at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, Guiteau approached and shot him in the back. Garfield did not die immediately from the gunshot but succumbed to infection and complications on September 19, 1881. Despite evidence of significant mental instability, Guiteau was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging, which was carried out on June 30, 1882.
The New York Tribune presciently predicted that the attack on Garfield would transform the presidency, making the President “the slave of his office, the prisoner of forms and restrictions,” a stark contrast to the simple, accessible lifestyle presidents had previously enjoyed. The newspaper lamented the loss of a simpler era where Presidents were “the first citizens of the Republic—nothing more,” accessible and unguarded.
However, the Tribune’s prediction was not immediately realized. Despite national shock and mourning, no immediate steps were taken to provide presidents with personal protection. Presidents continued to move about Washington, sometimes completely alone, and travel without special security details. There is even a story of President Chester A. Arthur, Garfield’s successor, taking public transportation to a ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard, hailing a streetcar in front of the White House.
During Grover Cleveland’s second administration (1893-1897), the number of threats against the President increased significantly. First Lady Frances Cleveland persuaded the President to increase the White House police force from the post-Civil War strength of three officers to 27. In 1894, the Secret Service began providing protection, albeit informally.
The Secret Service had been established in 1865 as a division of the Department of the Treasury, initially tasked with combating counterfeiting. Its jurisdiction expanded to other fiscal crimes over time. Its early involvement in presidential protection was an unofficial, ad hoc response to the growing need for a trained, investigative organization to address presidential safety. In 1894, while investigating a plot by gamblers in Colorado to assassinate President Cleveland, the Secret Service assigned a small detail to the White House to assist with protection. Secret Service agents accompanied the President and his family to their vacation home in Massachusetts, and details were assigned to protect the President in Washington, on trips, and at special events. For a brief period, two agents rode in a buggy behind President Cleveland’s carriage, but this practice drew so much attention and criticism from opposition newspapers that it was discontinued at the President’s insistence. These informal, part-time arrangements gradually evolved into the permanent, systematic protection system for the President and his family we know today.
During the Spanish-American War, the Secret Service stationed a detail at the White House to provide continuous protection for President McKinley. While these wartime measures were relaxed after the war, Secret Service guards remained on duty at the White House at least part of the time.
Between 1894 and 1900, a wave of anarchist violence in Europe resulted in the assassinations of the President of France, the Premier of Spain, the Empress of Austria, and the King of Italy. At the turn of the century, the Secret Service believed that increased police actions against anarchists in Europe were driving them to flee, with many potentially coming to the United States. Concerned about presidential safety, the Secret Service increased the number of guards and mandated that a guard accompany the President on all trips.
Unlike Lincoln and Garfield, President McKinley was under guard when he was shot by Leon F. Czolgosz, an American-born 28-year-old factory worker and farmhand. On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was holding a public reception at the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. People lined up between rows of police and soldiers to greet the President and shake his hand. In the immediate vicinity of the President were four Buffalo detectives, four soldiers, and three Secret Service agents. Two Secret Service agents stood facing the President just three feet away. One agent later stated that his usual practice was to stand beside the President on such occasions, but he had been asked to move to allow McKinley’s secretary and the exposition president to stand on either side of McKinley. Czolgosz joined the line, concealing a pistol under a handkerchief. When he reached the President, he fired twice through the handkerchief, critically wounding McKinley.
President William McKinley, whose assassination directly led to the formal establishment of full-time presidential protection by the Secret Service.
Czolgosz, who identified as an anarchist, opposed all forms of rulers. Organized anarchist groups in the U.S. apparently did not accept or trust him, and he was not a member of any known anarchist societies. No co-conspirators were ever identified, and there is no evidence he confided in anyone. A post-execution inquiry by two psychiatrists concluded that Czolgosz suffered from delusions, believing himself to be an anarchist and that it was his duty to assassinate the President.
Czolgosz claimed he had no personal animosity towards McKinley but opposed the republican form of government and rulers in general. In his written confession, he stated, “I don’t believe one man should have so much service and another man should have none.” As he was strapped into the electric chair for execution, he declared, “I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people—the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime.”
McKinley lingered for eight days before dying of blood poisoning on September 14. Czolgosz was swiftly tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Despite some contemporary beliefs that Czolgosz was mentally incompetent, the defense did not pursue an insanity plea. Czolgosz was executed 45 days after the President’s death. Investigations by Buffalo police and the Secret Service found no accomplices or broader plot.
Development of Presidential Protection: From Reluctance to Formalization
This third presidential assassination in just over a generation—only 36 years after Lincoln’s death—profoundly shocked the nation. It increased public awareness of the unique vulnerability of the Presidency and the grave dangers faced by those holding the office. The first congressional session following McKinley’s assassination addressed legislation concerning attacks on the President more seriously than any previous Congress, though it did not enact specific measures for presidential protection at that time. Nevertheless, in 1902, the Secret Service, then the only federal general investigative agency of significance, assumed full-time responsibility for presidential safety. Presidential protection became a core, permanent function of the Secret Service, initially assigning two men to a full-time White House detail. Additional agents were provided when the President traveled or went on vacation.
Theodore Roosevelt, the first president to experience the comprehensive protection system that has become standard, expressed a view on presidential protection likely shared by many of his successors. In a 1906 letter to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Roosevelt wrote from his summer home:
The Secret Service men are a very small but very necessary thorn in the flesh. Of course, they would not be the least use preventing any assault upon my life. I do not believe there is any danger of such an assault, and if there were, as Lincoln said, “though it would be safer for a President to live in a cage, it would interfere with his business.” But it is only the Secret Service men who render life endurable, as you would realize if you saw the procession of carriages that pass through the place, the procession of people on foot who try to get into the place, not to speak of the multitude of cranks and others who are stopped in the village.
Roosevelt, who ascended to the presidency due to an assassination, himself became the target of an assassination attempt after leaving office and no longer under Secret Service protection. During the 1912 presidential campaign, just before delivering a speech in Milwaukee on October 14, Roosevelt was shot and wounded in the chest by John N. Schrank, a 36-year-old German-born former tavern keeper. A folded manuscript of his long speech and a metal eyeglasses case in his coat pocket likely prevented a fatal wound. Schrank claimed to have had a vision in 1901, possibly triggered by McKinley’s assassination, which gained significance after Roosevelt began campaigning for president 11 years later. In this vision, the ghost of McKinley purportedly told him not to allow a “murderer” (Roosevelt, whom the vision accused of murdering McKinley) to become President. Schrank felt compelled by McKinley’s ghost to assassinate Theodore Roosevelt. Following the attempt, Schrank was declared insane and committed to mental hospitals in Wisconsin for the rest of his life.
The formal establishment and expansion of Secret Service authority for protection was a gradual process. While the Secret Service began full-time presidential protection in 1902, it did not receive dedicated funding or congressional sanction until 1906, when the Sundry Civil Expenses Act for 1907 included funds for Secret Service presidential protection. Following William Howard Taft’s election in 1908, the Secret Service began protecting the President-elect, a practice legally authorized in 1913. In the same year, Congress authorized permanent presidential protection. However, annual renewal of this authority in Appropriations Acts was still required until 1951.
The onset of World War I in 1917 heightened concerns about presidential safety, mirroring the Civil War and Spanish-American War periods. Congress enacted the “threat statute,” criminalizing threats against the President made by mail or any other means. In 1917, Congress also authorized Secret Service protection for the President’s immediate family.
As the scope of the presidency expanded in the 20th century, the challenges of presidential protection grew. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt became the first sitting US President to travel outside the United States, visiting Panama with Secret Service protection. Woodrow Wilson further expanded presidential foreign travel, traveling to Europe for the Versailles Peace Conference in 1918-19 with a ten-man Secret Service detail.
The assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 further illustrated the complex and broad-ranging nature of presidential protection challenges. Giuseppe Zangara, a bricklayer and stonemason, harbored a professed hatred of capitalists and presidents, seemingly obsessed with assassinating a president. After his arrest, he confessed to initially planning to go to Washington to kill President Herbert Hoover, but the colder northern climate aggravated his stomach problems, so he remained in Miami. Upon learning of President-elect Roosevelt’s visit to Miami, he decided to target him instead.
On the night of February 15, 1933, at a political rally in Miami’s Bayfront Park, President-elect Roosevelt sat on the back seat of his open car, speaking into a microphone. Just before Zangara could aim effectively, Roosevelt shifted position in his seat. Zangara’s arm may have been bumped as he fired five shots at Roosevelt, all missing the President-elect. However, his shots mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak and injured four others. Roosevelt miraculously escaped injury. Zangara was immediately apprehended.
Zangara was electrocuted on March 20, 1933, just 33 days after his assassination attempt. No evidence of accomplices or conspiracy surfaced, though some sensationalized, unsubstantiated newspaper reports suggested Zangara might have been hired by Chicago gangsters to target Cermak.
The Washington Metropolitan Police force assigned to White House protection since the Civil War had grown to 54 men by 1922. In that year, Congress established the White House Police Force as a separate entity directly controlled by the President. Initially overseen by the President’s military aide, supervision was transferred to the Chief of the Secret Service in 1930. While Congress transferred control to the Secretary of the Treasury in 1962, the Secretary delegated supervisory authority back to the Chief of the Secret Service.
The Secret Service’s White House detail expanded slowly from its initial two agents in 1902. By 1914, it still numbered only five agents. During World War I, it increased to ten. Further additions were made as presidential travel increased. By 1939, the detail reached 16 agents and two supervisors. World War II presented new and significant protection challenges, particularly with President Roosevelt’s overseas trips to Grand Strategy Conferences in locations like Casablanca, Quebec, Tehran, Cairo, and Yalta. To address these increased demands, the White House detail was increased to 37 men early in the war.
The volume of mail received by the White House had always been substantial, but it reached unprecedented levels during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. Threatening letters also increased dramatically. To manage this growing problem, the Secret Service established the Protective Research Section in 1940. This section analyzed White House mail and other sources to identify individuals potentially posing a threat to the President, providing crucial intelligence to those responsible for presidential protection and likely preventing numerous incidents.
While there was no advance warning of the assassination attempt on President Harry S. Truman on November 1, 1950, Secret Service protective measures proved effective, preventing the assassins from directly targeting the President. The assailants, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, Puerto Rican Nationalists living in New York, attempted to force their way into Blair House, then the President’s temporary residence during White House renovations. Blair House was guarded by White House Police and Secret Service agents. In the ensuing gunfight, Torresola and one White House policeman were killed, and Collazo and two other White House policemen were wounded. Had the assassins breached the front door, they likely would have been immediately neutralized by another Secret Service agent inside, who had the doorway covered with a submachine gun from his position at the foot of the main stairs. In total, approximately 27 shots were fired in under three minutes.
President Harry S. Truman, the target of an assassination attempt at Blair House, highlighting the ongoing dangers faced by the President.
Collazo was tried in 1951 and sentenced to death, but President Truman commuted his sentence to life imprisonment on July 24, 1952. While substantial evidence linked Collazo and Torresola to the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and its leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, the government could not definitively prove the attack was part of a larger Nationalist conspiracy.
The attack on President Truman led to the passage of legislation in 1951 permanently authorizing the Secret Service to protect the President, his immediate family, the President-elect, and the Vice President (upon the Vice President’s request). Secret Service protection for the Vice President had begun in January 1945, when Harry S. Truman assumed the office.
In 1962, Congress further expanded the list of protected individuals, authorizing Secret Service protection for the Vice President (or the next officer in the presidential line of succession) without requiring a request, the Vice President-elect, and former Presidents (upon their request, for a “reasonable period” after leaving office, which the Secret Service interpreted as six months).
Amendments to the 1917 threat statute in 1955 and 1962 made it a federal crime to threaten harm to the President-elect, Vice Presidents, or other officers in the presidential line of succession. The President’s immediate family was notably not included in the threat statute.
Congressional concerns about potential misuse of the Secret Service by presidents, particularly under Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, led to restrictions on the Service’s functions and funding. These restrictions likely prevented the Secret Service from evolving into a general investigative agency, creating a space for another agency to emerge when the need arose. This agency became the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), established within the Department of Justice in 1908.
The FBI grew rapidly in the 1920s and especially in the 1930s and onward, becoming the largest, best-equipped, and most well-known US government investigative agency. The FBI’s appropriations included an annual item for the “protection of the person of the President of the United States,” initially appearing in the Department of Justice appropriations in 1910 under “Miscellaneous Objects.” However, there is no evidence the Justice Department ever directly managed presidential protection. Despite lacking formal protection duties, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover stated that the FBI did provide protection to Vice President Charles Curtis (under Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933) at Curtis’s request. Over time, the FBI’s primary contribution to presidential protection became referring names of potentially dangerous individuals to the Secret Service.
In recent decades, the Secret Service has remained a specialized bureau with limited, congressionally defined functions. In 1949, a task force of the Hoover Commission recommended transferring non-fiscal functions from the Treasury Department. This included moving the White House detail, White House Police Force, and Treasury Guard Force from the Secret Service to the Department of Justice. However, the Commission’s final report on the Treasury Department omitted this recommendation, leaving the protective function within the Secret Service. Former President Hoover reportedly expressed the opinion that presidents would object to a “private eye” agency like the FBI overseeing their protection and preferred to continue with the Secret Service.
In 1963, the Secret Service was one of several investigative agencies within the Treasury Department. Its primary functions were combating counterfeiting and protecting the President, his family, and other designated individuals. The Secret Service Chief managed operations through four divisions: Investigation, Inspection, Administrative, and Security, with 65 field offices nationwide, each headed by a special agent reporting directly to Washington. The Security Division oversaw the White House detail, White House Police, and Treasury Guard Force. In fiscal year 1963, the Secret Service had an average strength of 513 personnel, including 351 special agents. The White House Police averaged 179 officers.
In conclusion, while only four US presidents have been assassinated, the history of attempts and plots against presidents underscores the constant danger and the critical importance of presidential protection. The evolution of these protective measures, from almost non-existent to the highly sophisticated systems of today, is a direct response to these threats and a testament to the ongoing need to safeguard the office of the President.
