Pond v. People-Justice Served
- kellison71
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Justice is Served
Welcome back to the Castle Cocktail Lounge: The Bar where we discover all things Michigan legal history with a nice cocktail pairing. Two weeks ago, we Raised the Bar for Equality. Last week we explored The Anatomy of Cocktail. This week justice is served frontier style.
In 1860, as Saginaw was on the cusp of its lumber boom, the Michigan Supreme Court heard a case from the Upper Peninsula which would create a legal precedent not just for Michigan but for the nation.
Augustus Pond, a fisherman, lived with his family in Seul Choix, which is about 75 miles west of the Mackinac Straits. His home consisted of a one-room house with a separate “net-house.” His servants bunked in the net house.
On June 16, 1859, a group of men led by David Plant decided to attack Pond for unknown reasons. They arrived at his home, but having been tipped off, Pond was not there. Plant tried again the next night. Pond hid while his wife held off the men. She fainted when Plant yanked her arm through the door, but apparently her efforts were enough to convince the men to search elsewhere. Pond then loaded a gun with birdshot, determined to defend his home.
Plant and his band returned later in the night and assaulted one of Pond’s servants in the net-house. Pond told the men to disperse or he would shoot. He gave the warning a second time. They continued their assault. When Pond fired, he hit Isaac Balnchard, Jr. who crawled to the woods and died.
The following day Pond attempted to turn himself in to the authorities on Beaver Island, but en route, Plant’s men overtook Pond and carted him off to Mackinac Island instead. There he faced Judge Blanchard (yep, the dead man’s father). Perhaps unsurprisingly, Pond was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years’ hard labor at the Jackson State Prison. Pond appealed to the state supreme court.
The following year, in 1860, the Michigan Supreme Court overturned the conviction in a unanimous decision known as Pond v. People. They decided that the attack on Pond, his family, and his servants was more than a mere trespass, but rather it was a “felonious assault,” and Pond was therefore justified in using deadly force. He had no duty to retreat since it was his home. This is also referred to as “a man’s home is his castle” common law rule or the Castle Doctrine.
Ultimately, the high court simply said that a jury of Pond’s peers would have to decide his fate, but in doing so, the jury had to take into consideration this new ruling on the principle that there was no duty to retreat. Pond died before a new trial took place.
Stand Your Ground
The establishment of “no duty to retreat” when one’s property was under attack expanded legal concepts about self-defense and was adopted into federal law in 1921.
In 1925, another Michigan case grabbed national headlines as “no duty to retreat” would be tested again. That year a Black doctor named Ossian Sweet moved his family into an all white neighborhood in Detroit. They were set upon by an angry white mob. Someone from inside fired on the crowd and killed one person.
During their trial, Sweet and several family members were defended by famed civil rights lawyer Clarence Darrow, who argued that they had the right to defend their home. Darrow said that the law must apply equally to Black people. It took a series of mistrials and trials, presided over by Judge Frank Murphy who would later go on to be governor of Michigan and a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. The Sweets were exonerated, and the precedent set in Pond was reinforced.
“Why is the rum gone?” - Captain Jack Sparrow
Picking a cocktail this week that is appropriate for both the era and the location created its own interesting research questions.
We investigated what types of spirits would have been available. Rum stood out as a liquor that would have been readily available. Also, various beers. So that turned us to the original Rum Flip.
The Rum Flip
“ –Which Dibdin* has immortalized as the favorite beverage of sailors (although we believe they seldom indulge in it) – is made by adding a gill of rum to the beer, or substituting rum and water, when malt liquor cannot be procured. The essential in ‘flips’ of all sorts is, to produce the smoothness by repeated pouring back and forward between two vessels, and beating up the eggs well in the first instance; the sweetening and spices according to taste” (The Bartenders’ Guide, 1862).
As the Bartenders’ Guide explains, the “flip” comes from pouring the drink from glass to glass to create a creamy texture. The first known flips consisted only of rum, beer, and sugar.
The Bartenders’ Guide mentions eggs and spices as an afterthought in the first recipe, suggesting a transition in the cocktail’s ingredients. Other flip recipes in the same guide include the eggs as a key element of the cocktail. Many flips were served hot, achieved by sticking a hot poker into the concoction. We decided not to do that, but you can buy a “campfire beer carmalizer,” i.e. a mini hot poker, if you want to get authentic with it. (We aren’t affiliated and make no money off the sales. We were simply impressed that the product exists.) Over time, flip recipes abandoned beer altogether and used the eggs, and sometimes cream, to achieve the desired consistency.
We decided to stick with an original cold Rum Flip because of the prevalence of beer and rum in the U.P. at the time of the Pond trial, along with the summer heat. Oh, and thanks to the Lewis and Clark Expedition journals, we know that a gill of rum is one-fourth a standard pint, or 4 ounces.
The Recipe: [Cold] Rum Flip
1 teaspoon brown sugar
4 ounces rum
1 pint of beer such as brown ale
Add sugar and rum to one pint glass. Add beer to a second pint glass. Pour the beer into the rum mixture. Pour that pint back into the empty glass. Continue to pour back and forth until smooth and well blended.
Optional: add a pinch of nutmeg to the top before serving.
Heated Rum Flip method
1 teaspoon brown sugar
4 ounces rum
1 pint of beer such as brown ale
1 whole large egg
Add sugar and rum to one pint glass. Add egg to a second glass and beat well with a fork. Heat the beer in a small saucepan over low heat just until it begins to froth and steam; don’t boil. Pour the beer into the sugar and rum mixture. Then pour that mixture into the beaten egg. Continue to pour back and forth until smooth and well blended. Pour into a clean glass (or divide into two glasses) to serve with a pinch of nutmeg over the top.
CTK NOTES: It’s a lot of rum for a pint of beer, but then again we couldn’t find many references to the correct amount of beer, so that’s all a guess. We decided it was two drinks, not one, due to the volume of rum. We made a mess and were very glad we decided to do this outside. The pouring made the concoction very smooth and creamy, and over a few sips, it kind of grew on us (though that might have just been the rum’s influence). There was a carmely-ness to it, which would likely be enhanced in the hot version.
*Composer Charles Dibdin (1745-1814) was a British composer and musician with over 600 songs to his credit. “Tom Bowling” was his most famous sea song (his music is described as sea shanties although they weren’t exactly shanties). He is also noted as the first public piano-forte player in England.
Sources:
“Charles Dibdin,” Museum of Music History, Sept. 2014. https://momh.org.uk/exhibitions/charles-dibdin-1745-1814/
“Drams and Gills,” Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, https://www.nps.gov/articles/drams-and-gills.htm
“The Pond and Maher Cases: Crime and Democracy on the Frontier” The Verdict of History 8 Mich 149 (1860); 10 Mich 212 (1862). Supplement from the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society. February 2009.
Jerry Thomas, The Bartenders’ Guide: A Complete Cyclopedia of Plain and Fancy Drinks, New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, Publishers, 1862.
Comments