Rome, 4 March (LaPresse) – Actor Robert De Niro took to the stage at Carnegie Hall in New York on Tuesday evening and recited a passage from Abraham Lincoln's famous 1838 “Lyceum Address” during a charity event organised by Tibet House US. ‘Reason, cold, calculating reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence,’ De Niro said in a calm but increasingly determined voice as he became carried away by the words spoken by Lincoln at the beginning of his public life. ‘May these materials be transformed into general intelligence, sound morality and, in particular, respect for the Constitution and the laws,’ he added. De Niro was one of the main artists at the 39th annual charity concert for the non-profit cultural and educational organisation Tibet House US, where Laurie Anderson and Elvis Costello, Maya Hawke and Allison Russell also performed. He did not dwell on current events, nor on President Donald Trump, whom he has often harshly criticised over the past decade. But the reason he gave that particular speech had to do with the current state of the country. De Niro read excerpts from Lincoln's ‘Lyceum Address,’ a warning against mass violence delivered by Lincoln to a group of young people in Springfield, Illinois. Philip Glass, co-director of Tuesday night's charity event, used the speech as inspiration for his Symphony No. 15, “Lincoln”.