On the same day Theodore Roosevelt narrowly survived an assassination
attempt, his press secretary handed him a newspaper editorial from the
Iron Ore, a small-town daily located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Its
publisher, George Newett, had printed, Roosevelt lies and curses in a
most disgusting way; he gets drunk, too, and that not infrequently, and
all his intimates know about it. Tired of having his boisterous
personality equated with intoxication, Roosevelt angrily shouted, Let's
go at him! and the paper was formally charged with a suit of libel. As
the case convened, a cadre of admirals, statesmen and fellow explorers
descended on Marquette to testify to T.R.'s unimpeachable personal
character in the biggest libel trial of the early twentieth century.