The "American Magazine" was Webster's venture, and in the Belknap and Hazard correspondence one may find some curious incidents in the struggle for existence which the magazine had. It should be premised that neither of these gentlemen--and they represented the most cultivated class of the day--had much confidence in Webster. They nicknamed him the "Monarch," possibly from some assumption and arrogance in his tone, and he is rarely mentioned by them except in a slighting manner. "_I_ think the _Monarch_ a literary puppy, from what little I have seen of him," writes Hazard to Belknap. "He certainly does not want understanding, and yet there is a mixture of self-sufficiency, all-sufficiency, and at the same time a degree of insufficiency about him, which is (to me) intolerable. I do _not_ believe that _he_ is fit for a superintendent; that the persons mentioned will be his coadjutors, or that either the _demand_ or the _profits_ will be any way near equal to his expectations. His specimens already published [three numbers of the 'American Magazine'] are below mediocrity, and even in them _he_ is too much the hero of the tale. His plan of a _Federal_ publication, if sensible, judicious men could be engaged to execute it, and an editor of the same stamp could be procured, I think would do well. _Considering circumstances_, I would not advise you to engage with, him, but I think you may avail yourself of his application with the Columbians; only take care to do it in such a way that you may not, between two stools, fall to the ground."