The Case for Naming an Olympia Street After Judge Hewitt

'A Noble Life' was Rev. Napoleon Hoagland's subject at the Unitarian services in Tacoma Hall Sunday. It was in reality a memorial sermon on the life and character of the late Judge C. C. Hewitt.

A noble life, the speaker said, was one that followed the direction of our highest aptitudes. Noble primarily means knowable. It means ability to know and worthiness of being known. Nobleness is a short name for all the virtues. A noble man is one who is strong in all that goes to make the strength of manhood. It is the pictures of such men that we hang upon our walls in our homes and public halls for inspiration to nobler living. The fact that we cherish the memory of the wise and good is proof of our own capacity for wisdom and goodness. It takes virtue to see virtue. One of the commendable features of the Catholic church is the large place it gives to the worship of human goodness. To the worship of Jesus, the Son, it adds the worship of Mary, the mother. To these it adds not only the saints who lived in the first century, but those who have lived in later times. Lest some saints should be overlooked, one day was set apart for those that might not otherwise be placed upon the calendar. That day is today—November 1st—All Saints' Day. It seems quite fitting, therefore, that we should find our illustration of the noble life in one whose name does not appear on the church calendar, but that we should find him among those who have but lately walked with us.

There may be more of a halo of supernatural glory about the saint who lived in Judea or Rome twenty centuries ago, but the good man whom we have seen and loved, some of us for one year and some for five and twenty and some during a whole lifetime, brings goodness much closer home to us. For nearly forty years Judge Hewitt has been one of the recognized factors of civilization in this northwest corner of the United States. He came not as an adventurous youth but as the man of sober years and developed powers, who had already been admitted to an honorable place in the councils of his fellow men.

It was his to help lay the foundations of justice in this new empire of liberty in the sisterhood of states. At the call of the honored Lincoln, Mr. Hewitt held the reins of justice for eight years in this territory, beginning with the memorable date of 1861. And none could wish that justice were held in firmer hands. Venerable judges and lawyers, some of whom had known Judge Hewitt for a quarter of a century and all of whom had for years known him intimately, spoke as with one voice last week of his sterling uprightness of character, his loyalty to his own high sense of right and duty, as with one voice they declared their belief that no one has ever impugned Judge Hewitt's motives, that no one has ever accused him of doing a wrong act knowingly, and that no one could say aught but good of him. The saints of old—some of them—thought they did well if they withdrew themselves to the wilderness and in seclusion did no evil. But here was a man who remained in active public life for half a century and did so well that no evil is spoken of him. High honor indeed.

He was an Abraham Lincoln sort of a man, able to do yeoman service with hand or brain, ever the soul of honor, plain and unostentatious in his bearing and simple and straightforward as a child in his manner. What Lowell wrote of Lincoln is equally true of Judge Hewitt: 'A kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, who dreaded praise, not blame.' He was a man of action as well as a man of thought. Whether with the carpenter's ax in his hand, or the judge's pen, the farmer's plow or the soldier's musket, he was equally in command of every situation, for he put ability and conscience into all his work.

The names of our streets recall some of the foremost men of our national history, such as Washington, Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson. Would it not be equally well to have some of the streets bear the names of some who are closely and honorably identified with the history of the territory and state of Washington? Olympia would honor itself by making such a memorial of Judge Hewitt's name.

Measured by church creeds or evangelical standards, Judge Hewitt may have had little religion. I do not know that in his mature years he was a member of any ecclesiastical organization; but he was known as the father of a widespread organization in the state whose motto is, 'Friendship, Love and Truth.' His articles of belief could all be summed up in what Jesus named as the two Great Commandments, and those are the two rules of faith that Abraham Lincoln declared constituted his all-sufficient religious creed—'Love to God and Love to Man.' Love as expressed in justice and good works was Judge Hewitt's religion.

The doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of man summed up his theology. 'To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly,' was said by one of the old Hebrew prophets to fulfill the requirements of the Most High. No three words better describe the life and character of Judge Hewitt than these three words—justice, mercy, humility.

'Twas not men's praise he sought, 'Twas to help the eternal right he wrought, 'Twas to be loyal, firm and true To the voice of God that thrilled him through. Loyal to his own high sense of right, His soul grew strong with God's own might, So strong that when his eyes grew dim, Death, no terror, has for him.