Here we find the terms liberty and freedom both used. Today, we use the word law to mean many different things, and a richer vocabulary may help explain some differences. Is there a difference in the way the word law is used in the Book of Mormon? Likewise, we may wonder, is liberty talking here about something different from freedom? The English word liberty comes from the Latin libertas, and freedom comes from the German freiheit, but are freedom and liberty synonyms? In Greek, it is eleutheria, and it means not a slave, to be free meant not having a master.
The Book of Mormon has at least two senses in which the words liberty and freedom are used. There is the freedom to worship God and then there is liberty, meaning freedom from slavery. It isn’t certain whether the words are always used to mean one or the other, but two different meanings did develop and so it is possible that there is a difference between them. In this particular case, the phrase “people of liberty” stood in contrast to those who wanted a king, a master-ruler. The “cause of freedom” then referred to the social right to practice their religion.