There is a mental shift that happens when I travel to the far corners of the American landscape and reflect on the founding of our nation.
During a recent trip to Orcas Island in the Pacific Northwest, my wife and I drove right up to the summit of Mount Constitution. Looking out over the sprawling, island-dappled expanse of the Salish Sea under bright skies, Mount Baker and the distant Cascades were obscured by a haze of wildfire smoke drifting across the region. The Pacific Northwest is frequently romanticized as a remote, mist-shrouded frontier, yet a glance at a globe reveals a striking geopolitical and geographical reality: over 70% of Canada’s population actually lives south of this mountain's latitude.
Standing thousands of miles away from Boston, Philadelphia, or Yorktown, looking out over a horizon that the Founding Generation never even laid eyes on, got me thinking about how the core concepts of the American Revolution and subsequent founding documents still echo across unexpected terrain today.
Here are a few reflections from the trip that connect this island peak back to the Road to Liberty.
1. Weathering the Broadside ("Old Ironsides")
Mount Constitution earned its name thanks to the 1838–1842 Wilkes Expedition, which tipped its hat to Commodore Isaac Hull and the legendary U.S.S. Constitution ("Old Ironsides").
When you stand on the stone battlements at the peak, you feel the raw, unfiltered force of the Pacific winds. It's a fitting parallel for what the founders faced. The U.S.S. Constitution earned its legendary moniker because British cannonballs bounced harmlessly off its thick oak hull during the War of 1812. The ideals of the American experiment were built the same way: not to fold at the first sign of a gale, but to possess an institutional and moral hull tough enough to take heavy fire and keep moving forward.
2. Navigating Through the Haze of Conflict
When you are on a mountain peak, you often hope for an unobstructed, 360-degree panorama. But on our visit, while the immediate waters of the Salish Sea were clear, the majestic peaks of Mount Baker and the Cascades were completely veiled behind a thick blanket of smoke rolling in from distant fires.
It’s a striking parallel for how we look at history and our own civic life. The daily political and cultural noise often acts just like wildfire smoke, obscuring the long-range view and making it difficult to see the permanent foundations of our republic clearly. History teaches us that the founding era was similarly clouded by intense friction and uncertainty. Clarity doesn't always come easily; sometimes you have to look past the immediate haze of the present to recognize or remember the enduring landscape beneath.
3. The Watchtower of Eternal Vigilance
At the very top of Mount Constitution stands a stone observation tower built by the CCC in the 1930s, styled after medieval watchtowers. A watchtower has one singular purpose: to look out across vast distances to spot approaching changes, threats, or dawning light long before anyone else on the ground can perceive them.
Thomas Jefferson and other founders wrote about the price of liberty being eternal vigilance, but standing in a physical watchtower makes that abstract phrase starkly real. The road to liberty doesn't maintain itself on autopilot. It relies on people willing to step away from daily comforts, climb high, and keep a sharp, clear-eyed lookout for the preservation of freedom on the horizon.
4. An Island Fortress of Independence
Orcas Island itself is a jagged, horseshoe-shaped landmass surrounded by deep, swift-moving marine channels. Scaling its highest peak reinforces a very old American theme: isolation bridged by resilience.
In many ways, the early American revolutionaries viewed the original colonies as a sort of geographical island—separated from the heavy hand of the Old World by a vast, intimidating ocean. Striking out on an independent course meant relying on local grit, community cooperation, and a willingness to stand apart from the mainland of conformity. Those who live on Orcas Island today still reflect these same values in many ways, which I experienced firsthand during just a few days there.
5. Worldwide Legacy of American Liberties
Standing at the peak of a mountain named Constitution, it is impossible not to think about how far those foundational ideals have traveled beyond our own shores. The liberties codified in the U.S. Constitution and subsequent Bill of Rights did more than just support a domestic republic; they established a revolutionary blueprint that has profoundly influenced the written constitutions of nearly 160 nations across the globe.
When the Founding Fathers established protections for free speech, religious freedom, due process, and protection against government overreach into law, they ignited an unprecedented global wave of written constitutionalism. For generations following 1787, emerging democracies throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa looked to the American experiment as a premier model for how a free people could successfully bind their government through law and secure fundamental human rights. Even as global legal traditions have evolved and newer nations have drawn inspiration from multiple international models, the structural DNA of the American framework—separating powers, establishing checks and balances, and safeguarding individual liberties from the top-down grasp of tyranny—remains etched into the bedrock of modern global democracy.
6. The Living Horizon of Everyday Life
True appreciation for our liberties isn't reserved only for mountain peaks or sweeping historical vistas; it is revealed just as powerfully when we explore the terrain of our everyday lives.
When you wander down to a quiet cove on Orcas Island, walk along a shaded forest trail, join a pancake breakfast fundraiser for the local fire department, or participate in an informal jam session in a remote barn with fellow aging musicians, you experience the beauty of a free society in motion. It is present in the unhurried cadence of local conversation, the pursuit of independent paths, and the simple, profound ease of moving through a community built on trust and self-governance. In the hustle and bustle of daily routines—juggling work, family, and errands—we easily overlook these quiet liberties. Yet they surround us everywhere at every turn.
Epilogue
You don't need to be standing in Independence Hall to feel the weight of the American experiment. Sometimes, all it takes is a high vantage point, a distant horizon softened by smoke, and a reminder that the framework built in 1776 was designed to weather any storm, no matter how far from our nation’s founding the journey takes us. Just as the rich ecosystem of an island reveals its true character in the small details along every path, the blessing of freedom is best appreciated not just from the heights, but on the ground, in the ordinary rhythm of everyday lives well-lived.
