Joseph Smith tells the Nauvoo city council: "I was opposed to hanging, even if a man killed another, I will shoot him, or cut off his head, spill his blood on the ground, and let the smoke thereof ascend up to God; and if I ever have the privilege of making a law of that subject, I will have it so." After Smith's death, Young would define "blood atonement" as "the law of God."
[Source: Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
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