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."