Owen Lovejoy informs William Lloyd Garrison that he has only just received the invitation to attend the American Anti-Slavery Society's anniversary meeting in Philadelphia, and that he hopes to be present. Lovejoy asks that Garrison, in the event that he cannot attend, note that Lovejoy is in favor of an "act of Congress abolishing slavery" in the entirety of the United States, and that holding or claiming to hold a slave be made a penal offense. Lovejoy opines that if the construction of a Pacific Railroad in promotion of the "general welfare" is deemed to be constitutional in the absence of "any specific grant of powers in the Constitution", then it logically follows that the eradication of slavery would also be deemed a constitutional act, and that arguments of "State sovereignity" in the matter are not defensible from a Constitutional perspective.