Yeah. The only bright spot is that he did turn to abolitionism later and life and began plotting a way to free his slaves legally (first by selling Mount Vernon, but he couldn’t get a price that would cover his debts that he ran up funding the Revolutionary War and his retirement). But “I’m going to free my slaves the proper way according to the norms set up by my fellow slaveholders” and then up and dying before fulfilling that falls a bit short of ideal behavior. At least his will emancipated all the slaves he did own (after the death of his wife, who, unlike him, was an ardent slaver).

He was a stodgy old patrician, and a man of his time. But for all that, he preserved democracy, or its seed, at a time when it was very fragile in the US, and for that much, he will always be admirable.