From 1799 to 1818, Alexander Baranov served his czar as Russia's governor of Alaska. In 1906, an Alaskan of Russian descent named George Kostrometinov included the following description of the governor in a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt:

"His dauntless courage and indomitable energy made the settlement of Alaska by the Russians possible. In spite of the cunning of the Kaloshi [Native Americans] he founded and maintained his settlements among them...

Time and time again they tried in vain to kill him until at last they looked upon him as a great shaman or conjuror and sought his friendship. It was said that weapons refused to penetrate his body and it had always been supposed that he must have worn a suit of armor under his clothing."

The suppositions were correct, as shown by this coat of mail.

When McKinley was shot, Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest ever president of the United States, at the age of forty-two. A popular war hero from the Spanish-American War in which he led the famous Rough Rider Regiment on the charge up Cuba's San Juan Hill, Roosevelt had a reputation for courage, boundless energy, and idealism, which he amply demonstrated as president. Despite his wealthy origins, Roosevelt felt that it was his duty to protect American workers from the power of wealthy business interests. When Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike for higher wages in 1902, Roosevelt supported the workers and threatened to close down the mines unless the owners agreed to negotiate; he brought both sides to Washington, where the miners won many of their demands. A strong believer in racial equality, Roosevelt was the first president to dine with an African American in the White House. His guest was Booker T. Washington, renowned educator and principal of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Roosevelt was unanimously elected to a second term, during which he continued to support workers and average Americans by crusading as a "Trust Buster," against the unfair price-setting practices of big business. He went after railroad corruption with the Elkins Act, endorsed the Pure Food and Drug Act, and encouraged the vigorous lifestyle he and his large family so enjoyed by doubling the number of national parks and adding 150 million acres to the nation's forest reserve. Although Roosevelt was fond of hunting wild game, his refusal to shoot a captured bear cub on a hunting trip in Mississippi inspired the stuffed toy known today as the teddy bear. Roosevelt's mediation of the Russo-Japanese War won him a 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.