Today in Labor History February 19, 1807: The authorities arrested former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr for treason. They alleged that he was behind a plot to create an independent country in the southwest of the U.S., but had to acquit him for lack of evidence. Some believed he intended to take Texas or all of Mexico, but accounts vary as to how many supporters he had (anywhere from 40 to 7,000). In 1808, he traveled to England and attempted to garner support for a revolution in Mexico. The Brits kicked him out of the country. Prior to all this, while still vice president he had killed Alexander Hamilton in an illegal duel. He was never tried and all charges against him were dropped. Gore Vidal wrote an historical novel, “Burr,” written in the form of a memoir by Burr. The novel undoes the traditional hagiographies of America’s founding fathers, portraying them as the greedy, self-serving and often times incompetent men they really were. It was the first in his Narratives of Empire series.