In this paper, the equations of motion of a Bernoulli-Euler cantilever beam fixed on a moving cart and carrying a lumped mass concentrated at an arbitrary position along the beam is derived. The motion of the beam-mass-cart system is analyzed through unconstrained modal analysis, and a unified characteristic equation for calculating the natural frequencies of the system is obtained. The changes of natural frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes with respect to the changes in mass ratios of the system and to the concentrated position of the lumped mass are investigated with the frequency equation, which can be generally applied to this kind of systems. The exact and assumed-mode solutions including the dynamics of the base cart are obtained, and the open-loop responses of the system by arbitrarily designed forcing function are given by numerical simulations. The results match well with physical phenomena even at the extreme cases where the concentrated mass is attached to the bottom and to the top of the beam.