In 1872 and 1874 , Gleaves was elected as the 55th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina . In 1874 , he defeated Martin Delany , an African American running as an Independent Republican , for the office . In 1876 , Gleaves was a delegate to the 1876 Republican National Convention which chose Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes as its nominee . In the general election , there was massive fraud in South Carolina . However , the Republican Party officeholders , including Gleaves , were voted out of office . The end of the Reconstruction Era and the removal of federal troops from South Carolina following the 1876 election signified the restoration of essentially one-party rule in the south and Gleaves was the last Republican Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina until Bob Peeler was elected in the 1994 election
1876 Republican National Convention
1876 Republican National Convention
Richard Howell Gleaves