 They collaborated with the white Farmers' Alliance in opposing the Louisiana State Lottery Company and efforts to tax the production of cottonseed oil, an extremely valuable crop for black tenant farmers.However, the two alliances split in 1890 over a Federal Elections Bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Henry Cabot Lodge, which authorized federal supervision of voter registration and voting.It was designed to end the suppression of Southern Republican votes, particularly black votes, which had been under considerable pressure by the Democratic state legislatures.