Juárez's wife, Margarita Maza, and their children spent the invasion in exile in New York, where she met several times with U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who received her as the First Lady of Mexico. The careers of Juárez and Abraham Lincoln have been likened, because they were two presidents who shared humble social origins, a law career, a rapidly ascending political career in their home states, and a presidency that began under the auspices of a civil war that made long-lasting reform a necessity. But they never met nor exchanged correspondence. Following the end of the American Civil War and Lincoln's assassination, Andrew Johnson succeeded to the US presidency. He demanded that the French evacuate Mexico and imposed a naval blockade in February 1866.