Gerald R. Ford photo

Remarks at Dedication Ceremonies for the National Air and Space Museum.

July 01, 1976

Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, distinguished Members of Congress, Secretary Ripley, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

This beautiful new museum and its exciting exhibits of the mastery of air and space is a perfect birthday present from the American people to themselves. Although it is almost impolite to boast, perhaps we can say with patriotic pride that the flying machines we see here, from the Wright brothers' 12-horsepower biplane to the latest space vehicle, were mostly "Made in U.S.A."

The story of powered flight is an American saga. The wonder is that it has all happened within the lifetime and the memory of living Americans. How many of us remember vividly the thrill of the first take-off? How many recall the first news of Lindbergh's safe landing in Paris? How many saw man's first giant step that planted the American flag on the Moon?

At this moment an unmanned Viking spacecraft is circling the planet Mars. It has only been 80 years since the Smithsonian's Samuel Langley launched his unmanned "aerodrome" for a half-mile flight before it plunged into the Potomac.

The amazing American achievements in air and space tell us something even more important about ourselves on Earth. The hallmark of the American adventure has been a willingness--even an eagerness--to reach for the unknown.

For three and a half centuries, Americans and their ancestors have been explorers and inventors, pilgrims and pioneers, always searching for something new--across the oceans, across the continent, across the solar system, across the frontiers of science, beyond the boundaries of the human mind.

Confined within these walls and windows are the products of American men and women whose imagination and determination could not be confined. There is nothing more American than saying, "If you don't succeed, try, try again." Nor could Americans be confined to the Atlantic seaboard. The wide open spaces have lured Americans from our beginnings. The frontier shaped and molded our society and our people.

Gertrude Stein once wrote, "In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is." This is what makes America what it is. Indeed, the impact of the unknown, of what was dimly perceived to be "out there," has left a permanent mark on the American character.

In the early 17th century, a few fragile vessels--like the Discovery in 1607 and the Mayflower in 1620--sailed across 3,000 miles of unfriendly sea. Their passengers and crew knew far less about their destination than the American astronauts knew at lift-off about the lunar landscape, a quarter million miles away.

The pilgrims feared the perils of the voyage and the misery of the unfamiliar land. But the sentiments that sustained them were recorded by Governor William Bradford "... that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courage .... "Behind them lay the mighty ocean, separating them from the world they knew, and before them lay an untamed wilderness.

Three and a half centuries later, that wilderness has been transformed. A continent once remote and isolated now supports a mighty nation, a nation built by those who also dared to reach for the unknown. The discovery of this continent was unprecedented. It opened the eyes of mankind, showing them the world was bigger than they had thought.

Our Nation's birth was unprecedented as well. A new form of government was begun which would allow for change by future generations, yet secure basic rights to men and women. The chance to earn property was given to those who had never had property, education to those who had never been educated.

In the New World, Americans had to be handy. Ours was a do-it-yourself society. Our fascination with machines to lighten labor and increase production began very early. The practical problems of engineering and science required education. The hard life attracted few learned scholars from Europe. Sometimes Americans built their schools before their own rough cabins.

By the time of the Revolution, there were more colleges and universities in America than in the British Isles. The men who wrote our Declaration of Independence were probably the best educated rebels and revolutionaries history had ever seen. When independence was won, the growth of free public education in the United States amazed the world and quickened our pace in science and technology.

Our Constitution specifically gave Congress power to promote science and useful arts by rewarding inventors and authors with patents and copyrights. While some governments are always fearful of what individuals may write or discover, ours has always encouraged free inquiry, with results that speak for themselves.

It was just a century ago, at Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition in 1876, that Alexander Graham Bell first publicly demonstrated his telephone. Today, millions around the world can see and hear the highlights of history as they are happening. Each new discovery, the result of each experiment, humbles us by the dimension of the unknown. Our progress can be measured not only by the extent of our knowledge but by increasing awareness of all that remains to be discovered.

To keep reaching into the unknown, we must remain free. We must have freedom to find and freedom to fail. Like our ancestors, we are always at the edge of the unknown.

In the next 100 years, the American spirit of adventure can find out even more about the forces of nature, how to harness them, preserve them; explore the great riches of the oceans, still an uncharted frontier; turn space into a partner for controlling pollution and instant communication to every corner of the world; learn how to make our energy resources renewable and draw new energy from Sun and Earth; develop new agricultural technologies so all the deserts of the Earth can bloom; conquer many more of humanity's deadly enemies, such as cancer and heart disease.

As Thoreau reminded us, long before the age of air and space, "The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever man fronts a fact." The American adventure is driven forward by challenge, competition, and creativity. It demands of us sweat and sacrifice and gives us substance and satisfaction. Our country must never cease to be a place where men and women try the untried, test the impossible, and take uncertain paths unto the unknown.

Our Bicentennial commemorates the beginning of such a quest, a daring attempt to build a new order in which free people govern themselves and fulfill their individual destinies. But the best of the American adventure lies ahead.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I like to dream of the future better than the history of the past." So did his friendly rival, John Adams, who wrote of his dream,

"...to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this, I would still say--let us try the experiment." I can only add--let the experiment continue.

Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:13 a.m. at the National Air and Space Museum. In his opening remarks, he referred to S. Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Prior to his remarks, the President toured the museum, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Gerald R. Ford, Remarks at Dedication Ceremonies for the National Air and Space Museum. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/257728

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