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You are kidding right? Of course Lincoln had bodyguard. Maybe they weren't called the Secret Service but he had bodyguards. This was a time of war and the president is going about unprotected? Guarding your most important politician is not a modern invention.

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No. He had in theory just one unofficial bodyguard, a police officer named John Parker. There is some evidence that Parker was bored by the play and left at intermission to get a drink and didn't come back to the president's box. He wasn't around at the time of the assassination, though, at which point Lincoln was completely unguarded.

We've tightened the security around major US politicians, and especially the President, a ton over the 20th century, especially. It's even increased a bunch since e.g. the 1950s.

Anyone could just walk onto the White House grounds without challenge for a really long time, for example.

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