Mormon, who has the right to execute traitors and who considers Pahoran as a possible traitor, now makes explicit his threat to “clean the inward vessel.” Moroni’s mention of “freemen” is deliberate. He has accused Pahoran of becoming a king-man and uses the result of the earlier king-men/freemen conflict as the model for his threatened action. Normally, a move against one’s ruler would be treasonous, but Moroni here defines himself as the loyalist and Pahoran as the traitor.