Donald Trump’s election as the 45th president of America, conceded by Secretary of State Clinton early this morning, will be recorded as one of the most astounding political upsets in our long and dramatic history. We see it as a vindication of the Republican principles of limited government, fiscal restraint, sound money, and growth. That is underscored by the decision of American voters not only in respect of the presidency and vice presidency, but by their decision to return to power a Congress controlled by the Republicans.

The President-Elect sounded just the right note of humility and call for unity when he appeared before his supporters, and the nation, to announce Mrs. Clinton’s concession. He spoke of the “major debt of gratitude” that the country owes the former First Lady for her service. “Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division,” he said. “To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.” He pledged “to every citizen of our land” that he will be “president for all of Americans.”

It is hard to recall a moment when Americans have been more in need of such reassurance. Millions of patriotic Americans have come, because of Mr. Trump’s own combative language, not only to detest the idea that he might become president but also to fear it. We speak of millions of women, Muslims, and immigrants. We have no doubt that the results will show that not all of them opposed Mr. Trump. But millions took personally his jibes and fear the policies that he promised. So it will take more than fine words to address their concerns.

It is also important to mark, however, that Mr. Trump’s triumph was delivered by millions of equally patriotic and decent Americans who have their own hurts and hopes. It is just astounding how clearly Mr. Trump saw what our press and academics, our think tanks and film-makers, and even our pollsters failed to perceive — the scale of the resentment among the family businesses and small employers, the working men and women, the taxpayers, the farmers, all of whom have been taken for granted in an era when the only winners seemed by those who were paid by the taxpayers.

Donald Trump was the first presidential nominee to speak of the “forgotten man” — and, Mr. Trump made a point of adding, as he did when he spoke this morning, “forgotten women” — in the sense that the social scientist William Graham Sumner spoke of the forgotten man, “the man who never is thought of…. He works, he votes, generally he prays — but he always pays.” Mr. Trump either perceived, or gambled, that there are far more of these Americans than any Democrat had calculated, and that the forgotten men and women are as heroic as they are humble. How profoundly right he was.

This is something to remember as the Republican victor starts hearing in the coming days and weeks all kinds of advice from those whom he defeated. It is not our intention to suggest, even for a moment, that Mr. Trump turn a deaf ear to their concerns. It is our intention to say that a victory like the one Mr. Trump won on Tuesday brings its own credibility. As much as he will now have to turn to healing, so will his critics have to acknowledge the President-Elect’s own standing. President Obama will have an important role of his own in this transition.

We have no doubt that the biggest loser in this campaign is the American press. In all the decades since the invention of moveable type it is hard to recall a story that the press got more wrong. (Not all of members of the press; we spoke with R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., storied editor of the American Spectator, often over the past 15 months, and can report that without ever wavering, that irascible scribe predicted exactly what happened yesterday). We look forward to reading how the press is going to account for its own failures in the election of 2016.

That Mrs. Clinton is now unlikely to be the first woman president does not diminish the importance of ensuring that we have a country in which women can aspire to the highest office in the land. We ourselves doubt that it was because she was a woman that Mrs. Clinton failed to reach her dream. Voters’ priority, instead, is growth, jobs, de-regulation, liberty and a restoration of our Supreme Court and our military. If we can succeed at growth, we have no doubt that we will find the right partnerships with our many friends around the world, a point that was well marked last night by the President-Elect, who vowed to “deal fairly with everyone.”