Whilst I concur with the synod in the efficacy of prayer and in the hope that our country may be preserved from the attack of pestilence … I am constrained to decline the appointment of any period or mode as proper for the public manifestation of this reliance. I could not do otherwise without transcending the limits prescribed by the Constitution for the President and without feeling that I might in some degree disturb the security which religion nowadays enjoys in this country in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government.

Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) American politician, general, US President (1829–1837)

Letter to the Synod of the Reformed Church of North America (12 Jun 1832)

On declining their request during a cholera epidemic for a national "day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer."