Newton Bateman (July 27, 1822 – October 21, 1897) was an American academic, educational administrator, and editor from New Jersey.

After graduating, he again struggled to make ends meet before an anonymous donor sent him a large sum of money.

Bateman was an associate of Abraham Lincoln and is the source of a controversial account of his religious views.

He fell in love with the jurist's daughter, but was not of proper social class to ask her hand in marriage.

He briefly studied at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, but was forced to drop out due to a lack of funds.

An anonymous donor sent Bateman some money and he used the funds to build a private school in northern St. Louis, Missouri, in 1845.

When Jacksonville, Illinois, established a free school in its west district in 1861, it named Bateman its superintendent.

[1] The Republican Party nominated Bateman for the office of Illinois Superintendent of Public Instruction.

In his final year, he published an 83-page report suggesting a selection of books for school libraries.

When Josiah Gilbert Holland was seeking material for his Life of Lincoln, he interviewed Bateman.

[3] According to Bateman, Lincoln asked him into his office one day to discuss a political canvass of Springfield.

The canvass showed the intended votes of all Springfield voters, and Lincoln was vexed:[3] Here are twenty-three, ministers, of different denominations, and all of them are against me but three; are here are a great many prominent members of the churches, a very large majority of whom are against me.

Likewise, Lincoln's former law partner William Herndon found the story hard to believe even though he approved of the rest of Holland's biography.

Bateman repudiated that Lincoln claimed that "Christ is God", but supported Holland's interpretation.

Herndon wrote about the discussion:[3] On my word, the world may take for granted that Holland is wrong; that he does not state Mr. Lincoln's views correctly.

Mr. Bateman, if correctly represented in Holland's Life of Lincoln, is the only man, the sole and only man, who dare say that Lincoln believed in Jesus as the Christ of God, as the Christian world represents.Bateman largely maintained a public silence on the issue.