 In 1841, Haynes was hired as editor of the "Tennessee Sentinel", a pro-Democratic Party newspaper that had been published by his brother-in-law, Lawson Gifford, since 1835.Over the next five years, Haynes and Brownlow engaged in a ruthless editorial war.Brownlow described Haynes as a "public debauchee and hypocrite," and accused him of stealing corn and selling diseased hogs.