In the poem “To America,” James Weldon Johnson proposes questions that reflect on the oppression African Americans have faced. In the letter from Nurse Cornelia Hancock to her mother, she discusses the personal costs of the Civil War from her perspective. President Lincoln's address on the Gettysburg battlefield was a public speech prepared for the nation. In what ways do the authors of the poem, letter, and speech form opinions and make arguments and claims about America? How are their arguments alike or different?