Upon his return from Maranhão, Caxias saw that the political climate had changed. Francisco de Lima's Liberal Party had pushed through the premature declaration of the Emperor's majority on 23 July 1840. In May 1842, the Liberals rebelled in the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais in retaliation for the Emperor's decision—on the advice of a Council of State dominated by Reactionaries—to call for new elections, annulling the previous election tainted by widespread fraud by the Liberal Party.