While immersed in some family research, I recently found a wonderful old letter.
It was written by a distant cousin in 1849, who referenced the Cholera outbreak in Kentucky and the resulting decision to move westward to Brown County, Illinois. In Illinois they would join the household of my great-great grandfather, who had moved there three years earlier in 1846.
Apparently, one of the forces of western expansion was the desire to move away from such outbreaks which occurred with relative frequency. These cholera epidemics could claim up to 10% of the population in frontier towns like St. Louis or Cincinnati.
James K. Polk died from Cholera three months after leaving office during the epidemic of 1849. He was in his farm in Tennessee, the same month my distant cousin wrote her letter. It was a national crisis. They called it a miasma.
In an article written by Michael E. Woods referencing another earlier Cholera outbreak in 1832 during an election year, I found this amusing quote:
Cholera also disrupted electioneering efforts. Presidential candidates were expected not to canvass for themselves, but their armies of supporters had to navigate the disease-ridden campaign trail. After a group of Virginia Jacksonians scattered to avoid cholera’s sweep through Charlottesville, many of them sat out a local convention held to endorse Martin Van Buren as Jackson’s running mate. The sparsely attended meeting drew ridicule from critics who denied that it reflected the popular will.
Imagine, political conventions hampered by an epidemic drawing ridicule. 
Those were days not unlike ours, when panic set in and health authorities made their necessary pronouncements.
However, it seems the whiskers grew thicker on the worn faces of those men of the frontier in 1849. They handled it, they voted, and then they pulled stumps in order to plow the fields.
As a newly-appointed Events Coordinator in Arizona, I have been struck by how our petitioning activities have been curtailed due to COVID-19 rules. Events like gun shows or hamfests have been cancelled or postponed indefinitely.
But this weekend in Prescott, Arizona, I learned the value of the adage "just do it." The COS District Captain for Arizona Legislative District 1 (Travis Korda) and the Regional Captain (Gary DeBerge) set up a table with a COS banner, displayed rack cards and petition forms under a shade tree on the Yavapai County Courthouse square. No auxiliary event was necessary. It had a spontaneity of expression that was refreshing and genuine, like a pitcher of five-cent lemonade.
It struck me that this was indeed an old-fashioned expression of our First Amendment rights to petition. Perhaps that is the reason I opted for the nostalgic opening and reached into the frontier. It was truly a grassroots activity on the grass of the courthouse lawn.
We secured at least 40 signatures in five hours. Not a bad tally, all things considered. I’ve never been an activist and even find the idea a little daunting. Maybe it is not so complicated.
After this weekend, I have codified my first rule: get three like-minded patriots, add an ice chest of cold water, and just sit under the shade of the oak tree on the square of a county courthouse. That is a real good place to start. If it can work in Prescott, surely it will work in Yuma.
At least in the fall when temperatures decrease.
