After the murders of JS and Hyrum Smith, Latter-day Saints used the scriptural phrase “blood of the prophets,” or similar phrases, to refer to their deaths. (See, for example, 2 Kings 9:7; Luke 11:50; Revelation 16:6; 18:24; Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 472–473 [3 Nephi 9:5–11]; and Woodruff, Journal, 13 and 18 July 1844; 27 Aug. 1844.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Compare JS’s comments a year earlier referring to the council’s petitions to the federal government: “He did not care whether Congress would grant it or not, it would serve to goad them with.” (Council of Fifty, “Record,” 21 Mar. 1844.)