Alma 51:7
1830 Edition
And it came to pass that this matter of their contention was settled, by the voice of the people. And it came to pass that the voice of the people came in the favor of the freemen, and Pahoran retained the judgement seat, which caused much rejoicing among the brethren of Pahoran, and also many of the people of liberty; which also put the king-men to silence, that they durst not oppose, but were obliged to maintain the cause of freedom.
Changes
Simple English
They settled this argument by letting the people vote. The people voted for the freemen. Pahoran kept his judge’s seat. This made Pahoran’s friends very happy. Many people who loved freedom were happy too. This made the king-men quiet. They could not fight back. They had to support freedom.
Paraphrase
The people voted to settle the dispute. They voted in favor of the freemen, and Pahoran kept his position. This brought great celebration among Pahoran’s supporters and all who loved liberty, and it silenced the king-men. They didn’t dare resist openly but had to support the cause of freedom.
Notes
"Another seemingly anachronistic issue in the Book of Mormon is a republican form of government. When the Puritans settled in the New World they drew up a document known as the Oath of a Freeman. The word 'freeman' was commonly used in Joseph Smith's day. Als, members of the Smith family had been involved in America's fight for freedom from England in 1776, and in the war of 1812. Thus the concept of liberty and freedom were part of Smith's environment." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 12.
See also Mosiah 29:32, 35, 39 for use of the phrase, "land of liberty."
LDS author Grant Hardy writes, "In 1831, Alexander Campbell, one of the book's first critics (and certainly the first one to read it carefully), famously observed that it seemed to weigh in on all the popular religious questions of the day, including 'infant baptism, ordination, the trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church government, religious experience, the call to the ministry , the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the question of freemasonry, republican government, and the right of the man.' This is a fair list, and references to these topics-or their analogous counterparts-can be found throughout the Book of Mormon." -Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon, p. 184