John Bellers (1654–1725)

Having learned that Quaker businessmen have thrived over the past four centuries, presumably because of their reputations for fairness, I was drawn to read about an early Quaker who is known as an economist and social reformer. Though Italian Jurist Cesare Bonessano de Beccaria (1738-1794) has been attributed with the idea of abolishing the death penalty, his 1764 essay was published nearly forty years after the death of John Bellers, who worked throughout his lifetime to convince the British parliament that the death penalty was inhumane and ineffective. Himself a gentleman of property and inherited wealth, Bellers believed that, rather than "level down" the wealthy, society should "level up" the poor. He worked throughout his life to institute programs that would educate the poor and give them skills to earn a decent living. Among his other ideas was "a European Senate to keep the peace." Bellers did not claim that this early description of a United Nations organization was original to him. He refers to King Henry IV, who proposed a European union in 1620.… (more)