According to Richard Bushman, in Alma 54:18 Ammoron says to Moroni: if you "lay down your arms, and subject yourselves to be governed by those to whom the government doth rightly belong," the war will stop. It is interesting that Ammoron here refers to Laman's complaint that Nephi "thinks to rule over us," when Laman himself claimed the right of rulership. "We will not have him to be our ruler; for it belongs unto us, who are the elder brethren, to rule over this people" (2 Nephi 5:3). Ammoron represents the war as a continuation of an ancient feud between the two sets of brothers in Lehi's family. That hardly makes sense to us. Would countless thousands of men hundreds of years later throw themselves into battle simply to reclaim an ancient right? It is all the more puzzling because after the landing in America, Nephi and his descendants made no claims that we know of to rule the Lamanites. . . . How could such an abstraction as this ancient hurt motivate people over so many centuries? [Richard L. Bushman, "The Lamanite View of Book of Mormon History," in By Study and Also by Faith, Vol 2, F.A.R.M.S., p. 54]
The Lord Confirms the Covenant Way
Alma 45 -- 3 Nephi 10