A few words may be necessary in respect to the Diary of my father, Dr.
Ezra Green, which I am quite sure he never suspected would appear in
print before the public eye.
When quite a lad I was, out of curiosity, rummaging over an upper
chamber closet, where in promiscuous order were odd volumes,--school
books, speeches, sermons, &c.,--when this unpretentious pamphlet turned
up in marbled paper-cover. All the particulars of it I had heard my
father frequently recount, and hence did not at that early age
appreciate its value, and so I gave it to my cousin James D. Green,
who, after preserving it with scrupulous care for more than sixty
years, has deposited it in the library of the New-England Historic,
Genealogical Society, together with important authentic remarks
relative to his and my father's progenitors. There this Diary came
under the eye of Commodore George Henry Preble, who requested my
permission for its publication in the HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL
REGISTER, together with such facts as he might gather of my father's
public life during five years service as surgeon in the army and navy
during the American revolution. To this request I gave my willing
assent, promising as a sequel thereto a memoir of his private life.