For mere vengeance I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere revenge. But for security of the future I would do every thing.

Speech in New York City (15 April 1865) on the occasion of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, as reported in John Clark Ridpath, The Life and Work of James A. Garfield (1882 memorial edition), p. 194. Several biographers include this speech, but accounts of his remarks that day vary