Possible Clues:

• Gore Vidal novel
• First U.S. vice president not to become president
• Seed with sticky prickles
• Hamilton's dueling rival
• An excrescence calling for back-massage, right?
• Prickly seed case - sound particular to certain dialects
• Whirring sound
• English dialect sound - notorious US vice-president, charged with treason
• Dueler of 1804
• He shot Hamilton