Just shows Ron Paul, besides being a kook, has no idea how a capitalist market works. If the north bought all the slaves to free them then the southern plantation owners would have been floating with cash to purchase more slaves.
Freaking moron.
Out of curiosity, where do you think Southerners could have purchased more slaves from? After all, the importation of slaves had been illegal for decades before the Civil War. Perhaps a small number could have been smuggled into the country, but they would have been few in number and likely quite conspicuous.