In 1871, Shepherd was able to convince the US Congress to pass a bill that established the territorial government that he desired. The Organic Act of 1871 merged the various governments in the District of Columbia into a single eleven-member legislature, including two representatives for Georgetown and two for the County of Washington, to be presided over by a territorial governor. The legislature and governor would all be appointed by the President. Both frontrunners for the governorship were initially Shepherd, from Washington, and Colonel Jason A. Magruder, from Georgetown; although popular support was behind Shepherd, US President Ulysses S. Grant feared that either appointment would cause a sectional divide that might make governorship of the full district impossible. Thus, Grant's inaugural appointment to the governorship was his friend, the financier Henry D. Cooke, "a gentleman of unimpeachable integrity" and secretly a close political ally of Shepherd.