“The Nephites, … by the exercise of their agency, brought themselves to such a state of affairs that their only course led to political bondage. This they did while living under a government providing for the freest exercise of agency. ‘Their laws and their governments,’ says the record, ‘were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good.’ … (Hel. 5:2–3.) Under these circumstances, they chose as rulers wicked men, who would certainly destroy their political liberties, to replace righteous men who had in the past protected and preserved those liberties and would have continued to do so in the future” (Romney, “Perfect Law of Liberty,” 43–44).