re: Vermin going after George Washington

An imperfect man is imperfect. We already knew this. I have no problem with biographers pointing out someone's faults, but where I take umbrage is when the biographer approaches his/her subject with a pre-established agenda.

It's one thing to let the facts dictate your writing, it's quite another to ignore those facts you couldn't care less about (i.e. the subject's virtuous traits) and bring his less-than-savory traits to the fore, thus informing your readership that they now have the "full" story.

Sure...Washington had men whispering into his ear that slavery was evil, but he was also from an area of the country who did not think that same way. He grew up around slavery and even inherited his own slaves when he was just a boy.

And so what if he was worried about his legacy when he wrote into his will that the slaves of Mt. Vernon were to be freed upon his death? The point is that he freed them. Freedom is freedom, no matter the motivations. Bottom line...he didn't have to do that, but he did it anyway.

Slavery was this nation's original sin and, like the original sin of Adam and Eve, that original sin was eventually paid for in blood.