Exploring the American Frontier Spirit

The Greek aspiration for new horizons became the American frontier

spirit. The men who built the Parthenon

were succeeded by the

architects of European Christendom.

The hunger for new knowledge, that's what gave birth to Magellan's first

expedition

around the world, to Columbus' discovery of the Americas,

and the

qualities that led Alexander to conquer the entire known world reappeared

in Caesar, in Charlemagne, in Cortez.

And in America, that same tradition rediscovered itself

anew.

An open and wild land became the site of a great revival of

Western imagination and ambition.

The greatest Americans of every generation have carried

the unmistakable features of their forefathers.

Born in Athens, formed by Rome, baptized in

Christendom, hardened in the furnace of medieval

Europe,

endowed with the English genius for liberty,

and then carried across the Atlantic to be reborn on the shores of a

new world.

And ultimately, to Apollo 11's journey

to the moon. Together,

we must now rediscover that spirit.