He had taken the remaining steps in the process with eager promptness, and at the earliest moment allowed by the law, he became a citizen of the United States.

It is true that he had left home in search of bread for his hungry family, but he went blessing the necessity that drove him to America.

The boasted freedom of the New World meant to him far more than the right to reside, travel, and work wherever he pleased; it meant the freedom to speak his thoughts, to throw off the shackles of superstition, to test his own fate, unhindered by political or religious tyranny.

He was only a young man when he landed--thirty-two; and most of his life he had been held in leading-strings.

He was hungry for his untasted manhood.
Three years passed in sordid struggle and disappointment.