The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic - have always blown on free men.

Roosevelt’s image of continent-spanning winds links the American landscape to an inherited political identity: freedom is presented as something as constant and natural as the weather. By invoking distances “from Canada to Mexico” and “from the Pacific to the Atlantic,” the line compresses the nation into a single, shared space and suggests that liberty is not local or sectional but national in scope. The phrase “have always blown on free men” also implies continuity—an appeal to tradition and endurance—often used in civic rhetoric to strengthen resolve during moments of uncertainty by framing present duties as part of a long-standing democratic inheritance.