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Very cute, you take umbrage at being called "self-righteous," after you repeatedly denounce great men for disagreeing with your understanding of moral duty; but you conveniently ignore the fact that ownership of slaves or bondsmen was never seen as the moral outrage, some have suggested, throughout much of history.

I noticed that too. People are fond of asserting modern sensibilities in judging people of times past. In this case he actually acknowledges that the people of that time had a very different understanding of the moral positions involved than what we do today. Even Abraham Lincoln said some things about Blacks that would make people of today cringe.

Most of the time the issue of slavery is an attempt to assert that their position is correct because "Shut up! The Losers owned slaves!"

It is a technique intended to shut down a dispute rather than to address the points brought forth by it. It is basically an ad hominem fallacy.