That the Book of Mormon is not the creation of European secretaries but is rather the product of the new continent is reflected in a number of its subordinate themes. It is obviously an American work growing in the soil of American concerns in terms of its basic plot and its enshrining of America as the promised land, as well as in the unconcealed secular patriotism with which it refers to the United States. “And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land. . . And I will fortify this land against all other nations” (II Nephi 10:11-12). American sentiments permeate the work. In it are found the democratic, the republican, the antimonarchical, and the egalitarian doctrines that pervaded the climate of opinion in which it was conceived and that enter into the expressions and concerns of its Nephite kings, prophets, and priests as naturally as they later come form the mouths of Mormon leaders preaching to the people in Utah. Monarchy is never really good, and its best and good kings work with their hands Taxation is oppressive, and lawyers are not to be trusted.

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The conception of government in the Book of Mormon is democratic; among the elect, at least, it is by “voice of the people.” “Now it is not common that the voice of the people desierth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people” (Mosiah 29:26). Yet this confession of democratic faith, so characteristic of the milieu did not pass without qualification. Not only was the upland Yankee turned Yorker democratic, he was shrewd and realistic. Whether it was the problems of developing his 92 B.C. plot or his reflection upon his experience with his contemporaries that gave him pause, Joseph appended a profound warning: “And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land” (Mosiah 29:27).