thinking.Douglass eventually made his way with what amounted to the applied ideasof Alexis de Tocqueville and Fancis Grund, both of which were writing at thetime when Douglass realized the truth about abolition. Grund and Tocquevillecelebrated the “new man,” the “self-made” men who were breaking through oldrestraints. These restraints included monopolized privileges, restrictedfranchises, and the basic refusal of the main chance of equal opportunity. Theblacks were confronted by the most vicious and deadly restraints any “new man”had been compelled to face in the United States. This was horrendous, but itwas not insurmountable. Douglass decided that the separation between whites was an advantage to hiscause. He could then make allies with one of the disputants in the fight andexploit the alliance to yield guarantees of access to the devices of power andmobility the “new man” had historically sought. In conclusion, he and hisallies would not share any common causes except that “your enemy is my enemy.”Influenced by Grund's and Tocqueville's beliefs, this was Douglass' newpolitical strategy and social goal.William Garrison continued to hounded Douglass. He once said, “I regardhim as thoroughly base and selfish....He reveals himself more and more to me asdestitute of every principle of honor, ungrateful to the last degree....He isnot worthy of respect, confidence, or countenance.” (Garrison Papers)But in 1862, during wartime, Douglass was ready to bury theirdifferences and implement his new political strategy."Every man who is ready to work for the overthrow of slavery, whether a voter ornon-voter, a Garrisonian or a Gerrit Smith man, black or white, is both clansmanand kinsman of ours. Whatever political or personal differences, which have inother days divided and distracted us, a common object and a common emergencymakes us for the time at least, forget ...
