 Johnson undertook the speaking tour in the face of increasing opposition in the Northern states and in Washington to his lenient form of Reconstruction in the South, which had led the Southern states largely to revert to the social system that had predominated before the Civil War.Although he believed he could regain the trust of moderate Northern Republicans by exploiting tensions between them and their Radical counterparts on the tour, Johnson only alienated them more.This caused a supporter of Johnson to say of the tour that it would have been better "had it never been made."