# Andrew Jackson — "its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government" > [!quote] "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 now enjoys in this country in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government." > — Andrew Jackson, explaining his refusal to proclaim a national day of fasting and prayer during the 1832 cholera epidemic ## Context As cholera swept the country in 1832, members of Congress and clergy urged President Jackson to declare a national day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. He refused, explaining that issuing such a proclamation would exceed his constitutional authority and intrude government into religion. His own Treasury Secretary and political allies disagreed, making the refusal a deliberate stand rather than mere inaction. ## Why this matters A president declining to use the office's moral authority for religious observance, on the explicit ground that doing so would breach the "complete separation" of religion from "the political concerns of the General Government." It is the separation principle expressed as executive self-restraint — the recognition that even a popular, well-meant act of public piety can erode the wall when it comes from the state. The stance is the precise opposite of an executive who treats the presidency as a platform for sectarian religious mobilization. ## Verification - **Primary source:** Andrew Jackson, 1832, on declining a national fast-day proclamation; documented at the [First Amendment Encyclopedia (MTSU)](https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/andrew-jackson/) and [Americans United, "Presidential Proclamations"](https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/presidential-proclamations/). - **Status:** Verbatim per these sources. Jackson's refusal is well documented; the contrast with later presidents who freely issued religious proclamations is part of the record. ## Related quotes - [[James Madison - total separation of church and state]] — the constitutional principle Jackson invokes as a limit on his own office. - [[Ulysses S. Grant - keep church and state forever separate]] — a later president making the same case as a public demand. - Featured in [[Presidents on the Separation of Church and State]].