John Abbott

Abbott was born in St. Andrews, Lower Canada (now Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec), to Harriet (née Bradford) and the Rev. Joseph Abbott, an Anglican missionary from Little Strickland, England. In 1849, Abbott married Mary Martha Bethune (1823–1898), a relative of Dr. Norman Bethune, a daughter of Anglican clergyman and McGill acting president John Bethune, and a granddaughter of the Presbyterian minister John Bethune. The couple had four sons and four daughters, many of whom died without descendants. Their eldest surviving son, William Abbott, married the daughter of Colonel John Hamilton Gray, a Father of Confederation and premier of Prince Edward Island. Abbott was also the great-grandfather of Canadian actor Christopher Plummer and the first cousin (once removed) of Maude Abbott, one of Canada's earliest female medical graduates and an expert on congenital heart disease. Abbott was an Orangeman and Freemason. Military service Abbott had served in the local militia “since boyhood”, being appointed an Ensign in the 2nd Montreal Militia Battalion in 1847. In 1849 he was a signatory to the Montreal Annexation Manifesto, calling for union of the Canadas with the United States, resulting in the withdrawal of his commission in the militia. By 1850 however, he was reinstated and appointed a Captain in the 4th Montreal Militia Battalion. He commanded the regiment on the border multiple times throughout the Fenian Raids, on March 8, 1866, they were called out for active service and were stationed in various villages throughout Argenteuil. On June 11, 1866, the Rangers were called out to serve at Cornwall, and then Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and a reporter from Montreal stated: {{Blockquote Abbott retired from the militia as a Lieutenant Colonel, commanding the 11th Battalion, on June 22, 1883. Taunted by his political opponents in March 1889 for his “disloyalty” in 1849, he explained that he considered his military service, and his commission as an officer and later commanding officer of the 11th Argenteuil Battalion of militia, to be evidence that his youthful error had been forgiven. ==Legal career==

Abbott graduated as a Bachelor of Civil Law from McGill College (now McGill University) in Montreal in 1847, and in the same year was initiated in the St. Paul's Masonic Lodge, No. 374, E.R., in Montreal. In 1867, he graduated as a Doctor of Civil Law (DCL). Most of his legal practice was in corporate law; however, his most celebrated court case was the defence of at first fourteen, then upon release and recapture, four of those fourteen Confederate agents who had raided St. Albans, Vermont, from Canadian soil during the American Civil War. Abbott successfully argued that the Confederates were belligerents rather than criminals and therefore should not be extradited. He began lecturing in commercial and criminal law at McGill in 1853, and in 1855 he became a professor and dean of its Faculty of Law, where Wilfrid Laurier, a future prime minister of Canada, was among his students. He continued in this position until 1880. In 1862, he was made Queen's Counsel. Upon his retirement, McGill named him emeritus professor, and in 1881 appointed him to its Board of Governors. ==Politics==

Early involvement In 1849, he signed the Montreal Annexation Manifesto calling for Canada to join the United States, an action which he regretted later as a youthful error. He eventually joined the Loyal Orange Lodge of British North America, well known as a pro-British organization. Abbott first ran for Canada's Legislative Assembly in 1857 in the Argenteuil district, northwest of Montreal. Soon after Abbott assumed office in 1891, Canada was plunged into an economic recession; later that same year he faced another challenge as the McGreevy-Langevin scandal came to light, revealing that Hector-Louis Langevin, former Minister of Public Works in the Conservative government, had conspired with contractor Thomas McGreevy to defraud the government. Despite the political toll on his party, Abbott dealt with the backlog of government business awaiting him after Macdonald's death, including reform of the civil service and revisions of the criminal code. He attempted in 1892 to negotiate a new treaty of reciprocity with the United States, but failed to reach an agreement. During his term, there were 52 by-elections, 42 of which were won by the Conservatives, increasing their majority by 13 seats—evidence of Abbott's effectiveness as prime minister. One year into his time as prime minister, Abbott attempted to turn the office over to Thompson, but this was rejected due to anti-Catholic sentiment in the Tory caucus. ==Later life==

. Suffering from the early stages of cancer of the brain, Abbott's health failed in 1892 and he retired to private life, whereupon Sir John Thompson finally became prime minister. Abbott died less than a year later at the age of 72. Sir John Abbott is buried in the Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal, Quebec. ==Legacy==

, Montreal, Quebec John Abbott College in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, near Abbott's country estate (Boisbriant), is named after him. He was named a Person of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada in 1938. His "most memorable" political comment is "I hate politics." The full quote was "I hate politics and what are considered their appropriate measures. I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucuses and everything that I know of which is apparently the necessary incident of politics—except doing public work to the best of my ability." In their 1999 look at the Canadian prime ministers through Jean Chrétien, J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer included a survey of Canadian historians ranking the prime ministers. Abbott's term of service was considered below par and was ranked #17 out of 20 (up to then). When the survey was repeated in 2016, Abbott was ranked 7th out of ten "short-term" prime ministers with a score of 1.8 out of 5. ==See also==