# Name of US Secret Service: why 'secret'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 7, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624 "2006-10-07T18:01:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/1 "2006-10-07T18:01:00Z")
What is the ‘secret’ in the name of the [United States Secret Service](http://www.secretservice.gov/) supposed to mean? (I found no answer to that on either their own web site or in [the Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secret_Service). As far as I know they are not tasked with any unavoved/unavovable activities (as those of intelligence agencies), and maintain a degree of confidentiality in their investigations just like all law enforcement does, right? Or was ‘secret’ used in a different way in the 19th century? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/2 "2006-10-07T18:07:27Z")
Just to say that, when I saw Clinton speak in Dublin, the sight of several incredibly muscular 6’4" black guys in smart suits, bulges in their jackets, wearing earpieces and dark glasses, “mingling” with the pasty-looking Irish crowd, put the lie to the term “secret”. And made me giggle. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/3 "2006-10-07T20:57:10Z")
This is a WAG: They are all required to carry top secret clearances, because of what they might see or hear in the course of carrying out their duties. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/4 "2006-10-07T21:10:40Z")
When the Secret Service was [first created](http://www.secretservice.gov/history_beginnings.shtml) it was as an anti-counterfeiting agency; presidential protection was added to its duties after the McKinley assassination. Also, the agency’s duties were originally more wide-ranging than the modern “protect the President and stop counterfeiters”: > [@](#): > > During its early years, the Secret Service investigated many cases unrelated to counterfeiting. These cases included the Teapot Dome oil scandals, the Ku Klux Klan, Government land frauds, and counterespionage activity during the Spanish-American War and World War I. As other federal law enforcement agencies were created, the investigative jurisdiction of the Secret Service became limited to Treasury-related crimes. From the _Oxford English Dictionary_, the term “secret service” for a government intelligence or security agency goes back to at least the 18th century. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/5 "2006-10-07T21:19:07Z")
The Secret Service was part of the Department of the Treasury until recently and they did other things besides protect the POTUS such as catch counterfeiters. As a matter of fact, only a small percentage of their people were involved in protecting the President directly. Others investigated things like writing threatening letters against the government and things like that. I don’t know if their name has any meaning besides the fact that they could be watching you anywhere. I have had a couple of brushes with them. In one case, they selected me out of a large group of college students to greet Bill Clinton’s motorcade and do photo ops with everyone that got out. I realized later that a short conversation with a Secret Service Agent was probably an interview and I just thought it was a chat. I know that their were agents in the area disguised as homeless people as well. I also know another person well that is the son a former top-level Secret Service Agent. He was protecting Reagan when he was shot (not James Brady who was shot himself). He went on to protect former President Ford and others. This person is incredibly screwed up because of the 2nd hand experience and says that the whole job is just one brutal mind-screw and anyone that makes it through has to be one incredible asshole. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/6 "2006-10-07T21:32:49Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Just to say that, when I saw Clinton speak in Dublin, the sight of several incredibly muscular 6’4" black guys in smart suits, bulges in their jackets, wearing earpieces and dark glasses, “mingling” with the pasty-looking Irish crowd, put the lie to the term “secret”. And made me giggle. [/QUOTE] I saw them at Chelsea’s graduation (I was attending my brother’s). They were standing right next to me, surrounding Chelsea. They were _huge_ guys, their necks had more muscle than my arms, and they were wearing graduation robes (complete with hats) to mingle with the crowd 🙂 That was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/7 "2006-10-07T21:43:38Z")
[QUOTE=xash] I saw them at Chelsea’s graduation (I was attending my brother’s). They were standing right next to me, surrounding Chelsea. They were _huge_ guys, their necks had more muscle than my arms, and they were wearing graduation robes (complete with hats) to mingle with the crowd 🙂 That was hilarious. [/QUOTE] That is true but it is also the point of all that stuff. They want you to believe that they have not only the biggest guys but also the strongest, most well-composed, best trained, most technologically assisted men in the whole world that world also happily take a cap for the pres the second the opportunity presented itself so don’t even consider it. SS Presidential duty is considered a huge honor but also one of the most stressful jobs there is. They have guys that fought for that honor sitting on top of the White House 24 hours a day with surface to air missiles scanning the skies for an impending threat. That would get old very fast. Most people in the Secret Service aren’t involved in any of that. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/8 "2006-10-08T01:27:54Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] This is a WAG: They are all required to carry top secret clearances, because of what they might see or hear in the course of carrying out their duties. [/QUOTE] Probably a very inaccurate WAG. Presumably you mean what they might hear while guarding the President. But only a very small number of Secret Service Agents are assigned to that duty. Why would they waste time & money from their budget doing top secret clearances on all their agents? That’s just silly. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/9 "2006-10-09T09:28:59Z")
[QUOTE=MEBuckner] From the _Oxford English Dictionary_, the term “secret service” for a government intelligence or security agency goes back to at least the 18th century. [/QUOTE] Not quite, although, to be fair, the _OED_ entry isn’t entirely clear. As used by the British government from the seventeenth century onwards, the ‘Secret Service’ was not a department, but a fund, usually administered by one of the senior Treasury officials. Technically, it was the fund used for payments for which the Treasury did not want/need to account to the Exchequer. Those could include genuinely clandestine or nefarious payments, even ones relating to intelligence work, but its main use was as a petty cash fund, for payments considered (by the Treasury) to be too trivial to be audited. That remained the principal meaning of the phrase in UK English well into the nineteenth century, although by then it had acquired the connotation of a government slush fund. Which leaves the question as to whether that then influenced, directly or indirectly, the US usage. That the US Secret Service started out as a department of the Treasury is certainly suggestive, but, if there is a connection, it really ought to be possible to document it precisely. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/10 "2006-10-09T11:31:50Z")
[QUOTE=APB] Not quite, although, to be fair, the _OED_ entry isn’t entirely clear. As used by the British government from the seventeenth century onwards, the ‘Secret Service’ was not a department, but a fund, usually administered by one of the senior Treasury officials. Technically, it was the fund used for payments for which the Treasury did not want/need to account to the Exchequer. Those could include genuinely clandestine or nefarious payments, even ones relating to intelligence work, but its main use was as a petty cash fund, for payments considered (by the Treasury) to be too trivial to be audited. That remained the principal meaning of the phrase in UK English well into the nineteenth century, although by then it had acquired the connotation of a government slush fund. Which leaves the question as to whether that then influenced, directly or indirectly, the US usage. That the US Secret Service started out as a department of the Treasury is certainly suggestive, but, if there is a connection, it really ought to be possible to document it precisely. [/QUOTE] In support of this, it’s worth noting that the impeachment of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was on the (politically motivated and apparently false) allegation that he had converted the 2.5% of moneys received from allied forces in the alliance against Louis XIV’s wars of imperialistic aggression to his personal use. The money was intended to be “secret service,” so described in those words at the time, for the gathering of intelligence, and hence not required to be publicly accountable to Parliament etc. ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/11 "2006-10-09T12:16:22Z")
[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net] Probably a very inaccurate WAG. Presumably you mean what they might hear while guarding the President. But only a very small number of Secret Service Agents are assigned to that duty. Why would they waste time & money from their budget doing top secret clearances on all their agents? That’s just silly. [/QUOTE] So are you saying that Secret Service agents do not require a top secret clearance? I think that **picunurse** hit it right on the nose with the WAG. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/12 "2006-10-09T12:52:57Z")
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy] So are you saying that Secret Service agents do not require a top secret clearance? I think that **picunurse** hit it right on the nose with the WAG. [/QUOTE] Why? The Secret Service was established and named long before “top secret clearances” existed. Indeed, even if such things did exist, why would one be required for the job of suppressing counterfeit currency? While it may be possible that secret service agents have clearances, I can’t see it being an issue. Only a handful would need them: when the president is discussing top secret matters, there is no need of the secret service to be in the room; they can be just outside the door. I wouldn’t expect a Secret Service agent to have any more clearance than your average FBI agent. ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/13 "2006-10-09T13:13:44Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Why? The Secret Service was established and named long before “top secret clearances” existed. Indeed, even if such things did exist, why would one be required for the job of suppressing counterfeit currency? While it may be possible that secret service agents have clearances, I can’t see it being an issue. Only a handful would need them: when the president is discussing top secret matters, there is no need of the secret service to be in the room; they can be just outside the door. I wouldn’t expect a Secret Service agent to have any more clearance than your average FBI agent. [/QUOTE] From [the Secret Service website](http://www.secretservice.gov/opportunities_co-op.shtml) I can see where you are coming from. But even though they may never use their clearance there is a possibility they will come across stuff of a top secret nature. > [@](#): > > \*\*All Secret Service positions require top secret security clearances. \*\* Students may be appointed based on the results of a preliminary background investigation; however, continued employment is contingent upon completion of the full field background investigation. While in the Marines I had a top secret clearance but never used it. Just because one has top secret security clearance, it does not mean that they will have access to top secret information. However, I would assume that there is a pretty good chance that someone working in the Secret Service will come across something of a super sensitive nature sometime in their career. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/14 "2006-10-09T13:38:12Z")
[QUOTE=tschild] As far as I know they are not tasked with any unavowed/unavowable activities (as those of intelligence agencies), and maintain a degree of confidentiality in their investigations just like all law enforcement does, right? Or was ‘secret’ used in a different way in the 19th century? [/QUOTE] No, “secret” meant the same thing then that it does now. But it was more of a novelty in federal law enforcement in 1865 than it is today. Try to wrap your mind around the federal government as it existed in 1865. There was _no federal Department of Justice_–just an Attorney General and a handful of marshals–and few actions defined as federal crimes. Law enforcement was for the states. There was no FBI, no CIA, and no foreign or military intelligence to speak of. The Army ran a few spies during the Civil War, and that was about it–no one would have thought of having an intelligence-gathering bureaucracy in peacetime. There were no federal drug laws, no DEA, and Prohibition was far in the future. So when counterfeiting became a problem with the advent of paper currency, during the Civil War, a _secret_ federal agency to investigate was very much a new thing. As decades went by, other duties requiring an element of detective work–such as protecting the President–were added to its mission. The name is certainly an anachronism today–other agencies such as the CIA are larger and much more secretive. But I don’t expect it to change any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-us-secret-service-why-secret/375624/15 "2006-10-09T13:48:06Z")
[QUOTE=APB] Not quite, although, to be fair, the _OED_ entry isn’t entirely clear. As used by the British government from the seventeenth century onwards, the ‘Secret Service’ was not a department, but a fund, usually administered by one of the senior Treasury officials. Technically, it was the fund used for payments for which the Treasury did not want/need to account to the Exchequer. Those could include genuinely clandestine or nefarious payments, even ones relating to intelligence work, but its main use was as a petty cash fund, for payments considered (by the Treasury) to be too trivial to be audited. That remained the principal meaning of the phrase in UK English well into the nineteenth century, although by then it had acquired the connotation of a government slush fund. Which leaves the question as to whether that then influenced, directly or indirectly, the US usage. That the US Secret Service started out as a department of the Treasury is certainly suggestive, but, if there is a connection, it really ought to be possible to document it precisely. [/QUOTE] The US also had such a fund and it was also called “The Secret Service Fund” and was under control of the President and administered bv the Secretary of State. Sometime under the Presidency of Jefferson, things changed and the monies were administered by secret agents. The money was for use in Foreign relations.