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| After the Civil War, Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, was to be tried for treason. Does the debacle hold lessons for the trials awaiting Donald Trump? Two years after the end of the Civil War, Jefferson Davis walked out of a federal courthouse in Virginia as a free man, never to be held criminally liable for the Southern war of succession, of which he was the political head. In a fascinating and alarming new piece in this week’s issue, Jill Lepore explains how the government’s failure to mount a case against Davis helped strengthen the “cloak of Presidential impunity” in this country—with especially urgent consequences today. “Sometimes it feels as if the century and a half separating the trial of Jefferson Davis from the trials of Donald Trump were as nothing,” Lepore writes. Of the legal cases facing the former President, she continues, “Will any jury in New York, Florida, Georgia, or Washington, D.C., convict him of a crime? He could be acquitted. Or he could be convicted, win the Presidency, and pardon himself. Whatever the outcome, it will be contested by half the country, and there will be a cost, which won’t be borne equally.” Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | | | |
| Cover Story: The artist Barry Blitt discusses “Special Delivery” and what’s on his holiday wish list. “I’ve got art supplies and moisturizer and floss,” he says. “What more could I ask for?” Shop all our covers » The Inside Story of Microsoft’s Partnership with OpenAI: The companies had honed a protocol for releasing artificial intelligence ambitiously but safely. Charles Duhigg on how OpenAI’s board exploded all their carefully laid plans. Help Me Help You: An upstart motivational speaker wants to reform his profession—while also rising to the top. Tad Friend on Jesse Itzler’s secrets of success. A Poet’s Faith: Nearly two decades ago, Christian Wiman was diagnosed with a rare cancer and told he probably had about five years to live. Casey Cep on how Wiman’s new book makes the case against despair. Plus: Parul Sehgal on life as a critic; Anthony Lane on Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos; and more. | | | |
| P.S. “Rereading Rilke’s side of the correspondence today, I hear in it some of what must have first appealed to me: the tone of cool authority that comes from being slightly older than the recipient of your advice.” Kamran Javadizadeh on “Letters to a Young Poet,” by Rainer Maria Rilke, who was born on this day in 1875. | | | |
Today’s newsletter was written by Ian Crouch. | | | |
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