He blamed a day of fasting for his reelection defeat

Adams wrote a text of a national day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer issued by President John Adams as printed in the Columbian Centinel, April 4, 1798. This proclamation was issued on March 23, 1798 declaring May 9, 1798 the day of fasting for the nation. While this is not a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, it is still a great reminder of the need for prayer and God’s blessing in our daily life. Adams issued presidential proclamations in 1798 and 1799 urging the establishment of national days of "solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer."

Adams stated, "The National Fast, urged by me, turned me out of office," in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush from 1812. Adams claimed in the letter that "nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion." He also thought that his proposal for a fast day had been misinterpreted as endorsing the Presbyterian Church (of which Adams was not a member), leading to an electoral reaction. It may sound absurd to attribute failure to a proclamation, but as David McCullough noted in his Adams biography, a swing of just 250 votes in New York City would have produced victory.