Mr Donald Trump’s acceptance speech early Wednesday morning has set an encouraging tone that we hope will come to define his presidency and prove his detractors wrong about him.

After an extremely bitter election campaign that has left the United States deeply divided, Mr Trump told Americans that it was now time for the country to heal:

“To all Republicans and Democrats, and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.

“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans… For those who have chosen not to support me in the past… I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country,” he said.

That, we believe, was a very important signal from Mr Trump, given his campaign rhetoric that contributed, in no small measure, to the fissure and which has led to the current wave of street protests against his election in scores of cities across America.

In any contest, there must be a winner and a loser. The latter will naturally feel pain. But, as President Barack Obama so correctly said later Wednesday morning, that’s the nature of politics:

“We try really hard to persuade people that we’re right, and then people vote, and then if we lose we learn from our mistakes, we do some reflection, we lick our wounds, we brush ourselves off, we get back in the arena. We try even harder the next time.

“The point, though, is that we all go forward with the presumption of good faith in our fellow citizens, because that presumption of good faith is essential to a vibrant and functioning democracy,” President Obama added.

Mrs Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate who lost the election to Mr Trump, was equally gracious, telling her supporters that they owe Mr Trump an open mind and a chance to lead.

“Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power, and we don’t just respect that, we cherish it,” she said.

As we argued in this space on Tuesday, the Democrats and Republicans who stood in the elections for Senate and House seats also have a vital role to play in influencing public thinking and behaviour after the vote.

A lot, too, will depend on whether, after taking office in January next year, President Trump will be able to separate himself from Donald Trump the divisive candidate.

We expect that he will, because, as we have often pointed out in this space, candidates for political office campaign on promise, but govern in reality.

The wounds inflicted by the campaign will, we accept, remain raw for a long time, but they must be treated and allowed to heal if Americans hope for a better life and if they want the international community to maintain its respect for the United States’ unwavering commitment to the ideal of democracy.

The healing process, we believe, would be greatly enhanced if the Republicans show magnanimity towards Mrs Clinton, whom they accused of corruption, by dropping the unwise campaign promise to prosecute her over the use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state.

It would also help greatly to remove the pall of fear hanging over the country by repudiating the promise to deport more than 11 million undocumented immigrants.