You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
alternatehistory.com
The relationship between the Federalists and Republicans in America's First Party System was notoriously fraught, especially over Franco-British relations (in response to the pro-British Jay Treaty, many Republicans burned effigies of John Jay while chanting “Damn John Jay! Damn everyone who won’t damn John Jay!! Damn everyone that won’t put lights in his windows and sit up all night damning John Jay!” and, of course, New England Federalists briefly considered secession during the War of 1812) and supposedly tyrannical policies such as the Alien and Sedition Acts. According to the Mount Vernon website, at least one Republican publication went so far as to suggest revolt in response to Washington's aristocratic social events, though this was probably just a case of sensationalist media.
So, is there any way that this could have led to an earlier full-blown American Civil War in the 1790s or early 1800s, with the Republicans igniting a second revolution against the Hamiltonian aristocracy and the Federalists putting down a dangerous ochlocratic rebellion? No doubt this would bleed into the French Revolutionary Wars, with the Republicans allied with France and the Federalists with Britain. How extreme would the circumstances have to be to spark such a conflict?