It depends on their rank and importance. Moreover, Samurai were not really abolished, well kind of, just their old feudal stipends and privileges were stripped away. The entirety of Japanese society changed during the Meiji Restoration, and that includes getting rid of the vassal system that was once used by the Shogun to maintain control. The samurai were changed into a bureaucracy based on western models.

The Tokugawa Shogun, and its peaceful rule for 200 years, had essentially already turned the samurai into a vast class of administrators. Many lower level samurai would rely almost solely on government stipends, however. One of the largest problems of the Tokugawa shogunal rule was how to pay for the massive stipends when the economy would downturn. Paying them resulted in peasant and middle class unrest, but not paying them threatened samurai (professional warrior) revolt. It is no surprise the Meiji Restorers did away with this system, and not every samurai was included.

The Meiji restorers instituted a westernized bureaucratic system of governance, and eliminated the vassal system. Samurai were already apart of the administration, and would then fit in as various administrators within the government bureaucracy based on their connections. Moreover, many would go to the military academy and become professional officers in the new conscripted military. The westernized system made it where the only use of stipends were to quell various disaffected samurai, and was therefore, done away with once a monopoly on violence was firmly established. Moeover, everyone else that was not samurai celebrated the limitations. Many of the samurai did not get positions in the new government however, and would become disgruntled and disaffected.

The Satsuma rebellion was small in scale comparative to other wars at the time, but not for the newly minted Japanese government. Saigo Takamori was an original Meiji Restorer that quit the government because they decided not to invade Korea, as was done in the past. He advocated for it partly appealing to a samurai spirit. He started his own academy in the Satsuma province and was a famous war hero that drew many disaffected samurai that had lost their stipends. They would launch a revolt, and the government would send an army against them. The government won at great cost in resources, 60 times what the samurai spent, but still ending the samurai/vassal.

The movie "The Last Samurai" has many flaws, but one great quote in it is " Algren: He fought with the samurai. Graham: He is Samurai." (even tho right before that the movie tries to tell us samurai did not use firearms). The samurai simply took the new bureaucratic and military positions, used their accumulated wealth for business ventures, or became listless wandering samurai with no money, and finally, no sword/gun.