In 1783 George Washington said that “we have a national character to establish.” 110 Years later Frederick Jackson Turner published “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” and wrote these words: “to the frontier the American intellect owes its striking characteristics… coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind…, that dominant individualism, working for good and for evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with freedom…” Turner identified the closing of the frontier as a watershed for national character. In the 110 years since, we have observed that Washington’s project could not be contained in limned geographic descriptions. Have we, then, a national character? And if we do, is it a friend to liberty?