
Twain was speaking against the government's attempt to regulate Osteopahy...the osteopaths/chiropractors had hoped he was a believer, but it turned out he thought bone-adjustment was a sham, yet defending people being free to choose for themselves.
Now what I contend is that my body is my own, at least I have always so regarded it. If I do harm through my experimenting with it, it is I who suffer, not the state.
— Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), address to the New York General Assembly (1901)