 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.The two front-runners for the governorship were initially Shepherd, from Washington, and Colonel Jason A. Magruder, from Georgetown; although popular support was behind Shepherd, 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's.