In Alma 59:3, Mormon recorded that Moroni had sent a letter to Pahoran. He didn’t give us the text of that letter. In Alma 60:1 (which was not a separate chapter in the 1830 edition), he writes another. This time, Mormon gives us the letter itself. The introduction to the letter is appropriately formal, worthy of a general addressing the political leader. However, it will soon turn to a more strident tone.
Mormon notes that as governor over all the land, it was his responsibility to support the armies. They had created the armies, and those armies had done well in difficult circumstances. Surely, when Pahoran read what we have as verse 4, that “were this all we had suffered we would not murmur nor complain,” Pahoran would have been warned that the rest of the letter would not refrain from murmuring and complaining.