In the 19th century, a number of new methods for conducting American election campaigns developed in the United States. For the most part the techniques were original, not copied from Europe or anywhere else.[2]<span> The campaigns were also changed by a general enlargement of the voting franchise — the states began removing or reducing property and tax qualifications for suffrage and by the early 19th century the great majority of free adult white males could vote (</span>Rhode Island<span> refused until a serious </span>rebellion took place in 1844<span>). During the </span>Reconstruction Era<span>, Republicans in Congress used the military to create a biracial electorate, but when the troops were removed in 1877, blacks steadily lost political power in the increasingly one-party South. After 1890 blacks generally lost the vote in the South.</span>
