6 



ALFXANDFk III. 



a majority of all the votes cast in tin- election. 

 One of these was in tli" interest <>f public educa- 

 tion, permitting school districts to levy and col- 

 lect special taxe- for Mipport of schools. It re- 

 ceived 4?.?:>'-3 allinnative and H'i.^74 negative 

 votes. The other amend inei it related to 1 he city 

 of Birmingham. Members of the Legislature 

 were chosen at the same time. 

 After the election, as in \W2. Koll. 

 and his followers claimed that the 

 result had lieen secured liyl'raiul: 

 that he had actually received a 

 majority of the votes cast, but that 

 the regular Democrats, holding con- 

 trol of the election machinery, had 

 falsified the re! urns. An address 

 was at once issued by his cam- 

 paign committee, indignantly pro- 

 testing against these frauds, and 

 calling upon all people who believed 

 in fair elections to meet at their 

 respective county seats on Aug. - ; ! 

 and organize "honest -election " 

 leagues, whose duty it should be to 

 see that such violations of law- 

 were punished and made odious. 

 Meetings were held in many of the 

 counties, resolutions were adopted, 

 and in some cases leagues were 

 formed. 



Another election was held on 

 Nov. (J in the several congressional 

 districts of the State, at which S 

 Democrats and 1 1'opulist were 

 cho.-en. the latter being elected in 

 the seventh district. 



ALKXAMM-lt III, Fmperor of 

 Russia, burn March 10, IS 15; died 

 at Livadia, in the Crimea, Nov. 1, 

 1894. lie was the second son of 

 the Emperor Alexander II, whose 

 great achievement of giving free- 

 dom to the serfs in 1861 placed him 

 historically hc.-ide President Lin- 

 coln and Dom IVdro 1 1. of Rra/il. All three act s 

 of emancipation took place within a period of ten 



5-ars. The Russian emancipator's eldest son. 

 icholas. heir apparent to the throne, died in 

 INI!."), and on his deal hind [-"quested his /m//r/V, 

 I'rince.-s Dammar, of Denmark, to marry his 

 brother Alexander. This marriage took place 

 Nov. !>, ls(>(. and is said to have been very hap- 

 py. Five children were horn of it. the eldest of 

 whom, born .May IS, isfjs. has succeeded to the 



throne. (See NICHOLAS II.) 



At the time when he became heir to the throne 

 Alexander III was noted for not h ing but his im- 

 mense physical strengt h. I'ul he had received 

 a military educat ion, and could speak French, 

 and he at' once set about fitting himself for the 

 duties that were to devolve upon him some day. 

 He learned to sp,.ak F.nglish and German, and 

 diligently read history, political economy, arid 

 works on civil government, and manifested a 

 deep interest, in religious questions and the his- 

 tory of the (ireek Church. In the Ku-<o-Turk- 

 ish war of 1ST? he took the field a^ a general of 

 infantry, and in the Danube campaign com- 

 manded the twocorp- on the left of the army. 

 He is said to have been a courageous soldier, go- 

 ing under fire with his troops, so that in one 



battle a bullet grazed his head. After the war 

 he was made geiieral-in-chief of the forces in the 

 St. Petersburg district. 



The Nihilists had persistently plotted to mur- 

 der Alexander II, and the sternest and most 

 thorough measures of repression had been exe- 

 cuted against them, while at the same time steps 



AI.KXANDER III. 



were taken for a commission of the nobility and 

 magistrates to work out a scheme that should 

 grant the people representative government and 

 redress some of their grievances. But the con- 

 spirators were embittered by the punishment 

 given to many of their number, and determined 

 to compass the death of I he Fmperor al all haz- 

 ards. Their final plot was a scheme by which 

 half a do/en of their number were provided with 

 thick glass bombs filled with dynamite, and sta- 

 tioned at intervals along the route by which the 

 imperial carriage was to return from a review 

 of the Marine Corps. A woman was to give the 

 signal by raising her handkerchief to her face, 

 and if one bomb failed the next was to be thrown. 

 The fir-t struck the ground behind the carriage 

 and wounded two of the guards, and when the 

 Kmperor alighted to look after the injured men 

 the second bomb was thrown at his feet. Its ex- 

 plo-ion mangled him fright fully and killed the 

 Nihilist who threw it. The Emperor was taken 

 to his palaee. and died within two hours. Alex- 

 ander III then became Fmperor. March 13, 1881, 

 but his coronation was postponed more than a 

 year. (See " Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1881, page 



cq.) 

 <)n ascending the throne, Alexander III set 



