The monarchy had been eroding for an 80-year period, when the haole oligarchy overthrew the queen.  As the queen was about to promulgate a new constitution, non-Hawaiian business owners overthrew the queen with the aid of the U.S. Marines.  The marines acted at the request of John Stevens, but without the authorization of Congress or the President.  The oligarchy proclaimed it was a provisional government and elected Stanford B. Dole president, and they proceeded to lobby for annexation.  They wanted Hawaii to become a territory in the hope of avoiding foreign tariffs on sugar.  Without a delay, the provisional government sent five commissioners to Washington, but the congress could not act because there was a change of administration.  The administration changed from Harrison to Grover Cleveland, who saw that a wrong had been committed and looked to rectify the situation.  So Cleveland withdrew the annexation treaty from the Senate and sent James Blount to Hawaii to investigate the situation.