Q 01/05

What was the original mission of the Secret Service when it was founded in 1865?

A) Hunting foreign spies

B) Suppressing counterfeit currency

C) Guarding the Capitol building

D) Protecting the President

Answer · why

B) Suppressing counterfeit currency

After the Civil War fake money was rampant; the new division sat inside the Treasury Department for the next 138 years.

Q 02/05

Which federal department has the Secret Service belonged to since 2003?

A) Homeland Security

B) Justice Department

C) Defense Department

D) The Treasury

Answer · why

A) Homeland Security

The transfer took effect on March 1, 2003, ending its long tenure at the Treasury.

Q 03/05

Whose assassination prompted Congress to ask the Secret Service to protect the President?

A) John F. Kennedy

B) James Garfield

C) Abraham Lincoln

D) William McKinley

Answer · why

D) William McKinley

The 1901 request was informal at first; full-time responsibility for presidential protection followed a year later.

Q 04/05

What happened on the same day Abraham Lincoln approved the creation of the Secret Service?

A) He won re-election

B) The Civil War formally ended

C) The Treasury was robbed

D) He was shot that evening

Answer · why

D) He was shot that evening

The agency itself was formally established a few months later, on July 5, 1865.

Q 05/05

Who was sworn in as the first Chief of the Secret Service in July 1865?

A) Hugh McCulloch

B) John Wilkie

C) James Rowley

D) William P. Wood

Answer · why

D) William P. Wood

He was sworn in by Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch in Washington, D.C.