 In 1869 the religious issue in New York City escalated when Tammany Hall, with its large Catholic base, sought and obtained $1.5 million in state money for Catholic schools.Thomas Nast's cartoon "The American River Ganges" (above) shows Catholic Bishops, directed by the Vatican, as crocodiles attacking American schoolchildren.Republican Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, James G. Blaine of Maine proposed an amendment to the US Constitution in 1874 that provided