Thomas Jefferson was not exaggerating when he wrote in 1808 that the country was in a “fevered state.”  In just one year, the economy had crashed with a 75% decline in business nationwide. In New England there was wild talk of secession. “Tyrant’ was among the kinder words used by Jefferson’s political enemies as his relationship with Sally Hemmings was being first reported.  During one of the interludes between his debilitating headaches, Jefferson wrote to his grandson and offered some advice on how to behave when in the company of people who hold opinions different from one’s own.  

(I have not altered Jefferson’s practice of never capitalizing the first word of a sentence.)

I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many of their getting warm, becoming rude, & shooting one another… it was one of the rules which above all others made Doctr. Franklin the most amiable of men in society, ‘never to contradict any body.’ if he was urged to anounce an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts. when I hear another express an opinion, which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it. his error does me no injury.

if a fact be mistated, it is probable he is gratified by a belief of it, & I have no right to deprive him of the gratification. if he wants information he will ask it, & then I will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own story, & shews a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him & say nothing. it is his affair not mine, if he prefers error.

there are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. the first is of young students… not yet filled up with the details, & modifications which a further progress would bring to their knolege. the other consists of the ill-tempered & rude men in society who have taken up a passion for politics….keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of yellow fever or pestilence. consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam needing medical more than moral counsel. be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence especially in politics.

 in the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights either in fact or principle. they are determined as to the facts they will believe and the opinions on which they will act. get by them therefore as you would by an angry bull: it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal…your presence will be to them what the vomit-grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for producing ejaculation. look upon them exactly with that eye, and pity them as objects to whom you can administer only occasional ease. “[1]

Great advice. But if Jefferson were around today, he would have zero Twitter followers, no “likes” on Facebook, and would never get a spot on cable news.

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[1] From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 24 November 1808,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-9151.