Robert De Niro walked onto Carnegie Hall's stage Tuesday night, unannounced and to loud applause. He didn't make any speeches, at least none of his own. After a career defined by playing gangsters, an avenging taxi driver and a paranoid prize fighter, the Oscar-winning actor recited a call for civility, as first spoken by Abraham Lincoln.

"Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense," De Niro said in an even voice, halting at first, but becoming firmer as he became caught up in words Lincoln delivered in 1838, early in his public life. "Let those materials be molded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws."

De Niro was a featured performer at the 39th annual benefit concert for the nonprofit cultural and educational organization Tibet House US, where others appearing ranged from Laurie Anderson and Elvis Costello to Maya Hawke and Allison Russell. He didn't dwell on current events, or on President Donald Trump, whom he has denounced often fiercely over the past decade. But his reason for giving that particular speech had everything to do with the country today.

De Niro was reading excerpts from Lincoln's "Lyceum Address," a warning against mob violence that Lincoln delivered to a young man's debating society in Springfield, Illinois. Philip Glass, a co-director of Tuesday night's benefit, used the address as inspiration for his Symphony No. 15, "Lincoln." He was supposed to premiere his symphony at the Kennedy Center in June, but announced earlier this year that he was calling off the performance, citing Trump's ouster of the center's leadership. The president has made the venue a flashpoint for his battle... Read More