But America is still not perfectly equal, he said. Mitchell charged the audience to "conduct themselves so that this aspiration is truly realized."

He said that he hoped his message was relatively brief, joking that although he once worked in the Senate, "a place of many words, I come from Maine, which is a place of few words."

In presenting the award to Mitchell, Williston Professor of Law Robert H. Mnookin '64 praised Mitchell for exemplifying the qualities of "preparation, trustworthiness, creativity and diligence that mark a great negotiator."

He quoted several senators, including former senator Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who lauded Mitchell as a man whom "not one man woman or child does not trust."

Mitchell responded to Mnookin's extensive, praising introduction, joking that it was not "too generous, in length or in flattery."

He said he was grateful for the recognition but accepted it with "humility, not as an individual, but as a representative of the many numbers of people before me and the many who will come after who have devoted and even lost their lives for the cause of peace in Ireland."

Before Mnookin's introduction, HLS Dean Robert C. Clark spoke to the guests about the importance of the legal profession.