Palmer — The Lead Region of Illinois. 



21 



The only figures available for the nativity of the population 

 of Jo Daviess County are given in the Federal Census Report 

 and are for the vear 1870. Thev are as follows: 



Table lll.—Xativiti/ in ISIO. 



Native. 



Jo Daviess County 



Group I 



Group II 



Group III 



19,966 

 7,213 

 7,975 

 4,978 



Foreign 

 born. 



7,854 

 3,989 

 2,734 

 1,131 



Per cent, 

 foreign. 



23. 3 

 35.5 

 23.0 



13.2 



These figures show the greatest proportion of foreign born 

 to be in the lead, and the least in the non lead producing areas: 

 The tendency was for a native born population to settle on the 

 farming lands, while miners from Cornwall and other portions 

 of Europe settled in the mining region. ^ 



The most imj)ortant of our problems is that which deals with 

 the political afiiliations of the population. So many elements 

 enter into the problem that it is extremely hazardous to arbi- 

 trarily include certain influences and exclude others. But by 

 taking a great number of votes and combining them for a series 

 of years, local and personal considerations may be eliminated. 



Table IV shows the combined result of all the votes cast for 

 the Hepublican and Democratic candidates for both president 

 and member of Consiress, from 1856 to 1896. From this table 

 it is seen that the northwestern portion of the county is most 

 strongly Democratic in character, and when we consider the 

 measures advocated by that party for the last forty years, this 

 fact comes to have great significance. The lead region, with 

 the strongest southern and foreign influence was thus also most 

 strongly Democratic, 53 per cent, of the total vote of this group 

 being cast with the Democratic party, while Grouj) III, settled 

 by farmers from Xew England, cast 65 per cent, of their vote 

 with the Hepublican party. 



1 Copeland, The Cornish in Southwest Wisconsin, Wisconsin Historical Collections, 

 Vol. XIV. 



