Van Buren served during the nation's first great depression, the Panic of 1837, which brought financial ruin and misery to millions. Many turned to the government for help, but Van Buren refused all public aid. He believed in Thomas Jefferson's theories that government should play the smallest possible role in American life. "The less government interferes," Van Buren explained, "the better for general prosperity." Due in large part to his refusal to compromise this principal, he was defeated for re-election in 1840 by William Henry Harrison, whom he had beaten in 1836. Van Buren ran again for President in 1848, but finished a poor third.