On this day (15 November) in 1777, after 16 months of parliamentary debate, the Continental Congress approved the short-lived and inherently-flawed Articles of Confederation. (What many of my conservative friends often forget is that the old Articles of 1777 created a loose confederation of sovereign States along with a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the States. The current Constitution was designed, in large part, to remedy this deficiency.)