Secretary Hamilton’s View...on January 14, 1795, Secretary of State Alexander Hamilton wrote a letter to President George Washington, describing the office of U.S. Marshal as “an unprofitable place.” Of course, salaries improved over time.

Chain of Command Confirmed...on January 17, 1878, when U.S. Attorney General Charles Devins, a former U.S. Marshal, warned U.S. Marshal Algernon S. Gray of the Western District of Virginia that the chain of command to his deputies was “regulated by the Marshal himself.”