He began to read law in 1859 and continued in this practice until the beginning of the American Civil War.

[3] After the end of the war he resumed his studies of law and entered the office of Lochlin J. Farrar in Springfield, Limestone County, Texas,[8] and received instructions from D. W. Pendergast.

Abbott was admitted to the bar by Robert S. Gould, who became a chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

In 1886, he was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives, and served in that capacity through the end of Fifty-Fourth Congress in 1897.

[10] Upon leaving Congress, he resumed his legal career in Hillsboro, Texas, where he died on February 11, 1908.