liliuokalani became queen in 1891 after her brother's death. two years later, when she attempted to introduce a new constitution which would have returned voting rights and taken away if the noncitizen residents who had been allowed to vote, she was illegally overthrown by a group of 13 local residents of american and european ancestry. they created a provisional government. they were immediatelyly recognized and this caused him some problems career-wise. according to u.s. constitutional law, only congress and the president can recognize foreign governments . the provisional government sent a commission to washington, d.c. to lobby for annexation. they were supported by president arrison. liliuokalani's supporters sent a commission to lobby against annexation. harrison was a lame duck president. cleveland became president. he withdrew the treaty from congress and decided instead of listening to two commissions that had come from hawaii, for and guest annexation, he wanted to know for himself what was going on so he sent out a special commission