"Because the marshals and their deputies were the only civilian police power available to the National Government during its first century, they became the veritable `handyman' of Federal law enforcement. In addition to their significant duties to the Federal courts, the early marshals took the national census, arrested counterfeiters and moonshiners, and sealed the borders to prevent armed excursions abroad. They also played central roles in every major test of the young Government's power and the primacy of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land: from the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, to the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, and the lawlessness of the `Wild West.'"
Congressional Record, May 31, 1989, Page: E1934